American Airlines 777 Jet Makes Emergency Landing at LAX Over Tire Mishap
After numerous Boeing planes suffered mishap after mishap over the past week or so, it may come as no surprise that yet another one was involved in an emergency landing Wednesday evening. However, this time, it involved an airline whose name hasn't come up much in the past week of dramatic aviation news. In short, it isn't United this time!
On the evening of March 13, a Boeing 777 operated by American Airlines had to make an emergency landing at LAX over a mechanical issue involving its tires. While, in a vacuum, this would seem like just another accident, this incident has certain notable similarities to another incident less than a week prior.
The American Airlines flight was traveling from Dallas-Fort Worth to Los Angeles when the pilot had to call in an emergency landing for what @abc7newsbayarea described as a "mechanical issue." What that "issue" actually was is still undetermined. According to ABC 7 San Francisco, the FAA said Thursday that the plane "blew a tire" while taking off from DFW, but American Airlines claimed that their pilot merely got a low pressure reading on one of the tires.
Whatever the problem was, the plane's other tires were in good shape, and the plane safely completed its emergency landing at Los Angeles International without further incident. What is notable, however, is that another 777 jet had to make an emergency landing at LAX almost a week to the date prior over a tire issue.
Second 777 Tire Mishap in a Week
Last Thursday morning, a United Airlines-operated Boeing 777 took off from San Francisco International, headed for Osaka, Japan. However, upon takeoff, a landing wheel fell off of its struts and landed in an airport parking lot, smashing two cars. The plane was redirected to LAX for an emergency landing, and the passengers were put on a new flight to Osaka.
To blame all the various Boeing-related incidents over the past week and a half on Boeing alone would be unreasonable. After all, some of these issues could also have been caused by gradual wear and tear, inadequate airline maintenance, or other factors. Still, there are interesting similarities between these two incidents. Both planes were 777-223 ER aircraft, and according to Airfleets.net, the "first flights" for the American Airlines plane and the United Airlines plane were barely a year apart: December 2000 and December 2001, respectively.
Personally speaking, while I think the coincidences are noteworthy, I'm not ready to pin this one on Boeing just yet. True, both of these planes are of the same variant and were manufactured around the same time, but they're also both over 20 years old. Landing gear tires endure a lot of punishment, and if they weren't properly maintained, incidents like these were bound to happen eventually. Still, as both the United and American Airlines tire incidents are being federally investigated, I'd be interested to see whether the FAA implicates Boeing, the respective airlines, or something else entirely.
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