Tire falls off Boeing plane mid-air, smashing into parked cars below

A tire fell off a Boeing jetliner shortly after takeoff at San Francisco International Airport and smashed into cars and broke through a fence in a parking lot below. Thankfully, no one was injured.

Video of the incident showed the tire, one of six on the left landing gear, detaching and falling to the ground seconds after the plane took off in San Francisco.

United Airlines Flight 35 was bound for Osaka, Japan, but made an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) at 1:30 p.m on Thursday. The plane managed to touch down safely despite being down a tire.

The Boeing 777 aircraft, built in 2002, is designed to land safely with a missing or damaged tire, United said in a statement.

The plane landed about two-thirds of the way down the runway at LAX and stopped there before being towed away. Fire engines were on scene but ultimately weren’t needed. There were 235 passengers and 14 crew members on board the flight.

The plane initially took off at 10:53 a.m., meaning it was in the air for about two hours and 45 minutes without all of its tires, according to FlightAware data.

The tire landed in an employee parking lot at San Francisco International Airport after detaching mid-air

Helicopter footage taken by local news broadcasters showed the tire at rest in the middle of the parking lot circled off with police tape. An unconfirmed video gaining traction online appears to show a parked silver car that was totalled when the tire fell from the sky. Behind it, a chain link fence attached to a concrete divider appears mangled.

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— Julian (@Aviationmech123) <a href=«https://twitter.com/Aviationmech123/status/1765834937221959884?ref_src=» https:>March 7, 2024

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