Airline says everyone is safe after one of its planes landed in Toronto missing a wheel.
An Air Canada jet made a safe landing Tuesday in Toronto after losing one of its main landing wheels, apparently during takeoff from New York.
The airline said the Airbus A319 jet was carrying 120 passengers and five crew members. There were no injuries when the pilots made an emergency landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport, according to Air Canada.
The plane “experienced an issue with one of its six tires on take-off,” Air Canada said in a statement. The flight took off from New York’s LaGuardia airport. The airline said it had no further details pending an inspection.
The Airbus jet normally has two large wheels on each of the two main landing gears, and two smaller wheels under the nose. One of the two wheels on the right-side main landing gear was missing when the plane touched down.
It is rare for an airline plane to lose a tire or entire wheel, although in January a passenger took video of sparks flying and then a tire falling off another Air Canada flight during takeoff in Montreal. That plane circled and landed safely back at the same airport.
Most airline jets have more than one wheel on a landing gear, and wheels and tires are designed to withstand the extra load if another one fails.
