Boeing Passenger Plane Taking Off at 300 km/h Loses Two Wheels... Near-Miss in Australia

All 289 Passengers Safe

An Etihad Airways passenger plane's wheel burst while taking off from Melbourne Airport in Australia, causing the flight operation to be suspended. As a result of the accident, one runway at Melbourne Airport was closed.

According to Australia's ABC News and others on the 6th (local time), at around 6:40 PM the previous day, an Etihad Airways flight EY461 bound for Abu Dhabi Airport in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) experienced a burst of two wheels during takeoff at Melbourne Airport. At the time, the plane was running down the runway at about 300 km/h to take off. Fortunately, the pilot applied the emergency brake just before takeoff, stopping the plane, and all 289 passengers on board were unharmed and safe.

AP Yonhap News

Melbourne Airport immediately used firefighting foam to prevent fire, and flight operations were suspended. Afterwards, all passengers safely disembarked from the aircraft and returned to the terminal. However, the aircraft remained on the runway as the tires were damaged and could not be towed, resulting in one of the two runways at Melbourne Airport being closed. Due to this, aircraft taking off and landing at Melbourne Airport had to use only one runway, causing delays for several flights.

The airport stated that no flights were canceled, but some flights were disrupted, explaining, "Some aircraft departed with insufficient fuel and had to land en route to refuel." The airport also reported that the accident aircraft was towed after maintenance on the runway, and the runway was reopened around 8 AM that day after inspection.

The aircraft involved in this accident is a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. Although it is a different model from the Boeing 737-800 involved in the Jeju Air accident, both are Boeing aircraft.

Meanwhile, this is not the first accident involving a Boeing passenger plane. In July last year, a wheel fell off a Boeing aircraft taking off from Los Angeles (LA) Airport in the United States. At that time, the aircraft was a Boeing 757-200 operated by United Airlines, carrying 174 passengers and 7 crew members, with no injuries reported.

Also, in March last year, a United Airlines Boeing 777-200 passenger plane taking off from San Francisco Airport experienced a wheel detachment immediately after takeoff. The aircraft diverted and landed in LA instead of its original destination, Osaka, Japan.