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<\/p>\nA Link Airways flight bound for Newcastle lost a wheel during take-off from Canberra in January, forcing the aircraft to turn back with 19 passengers and three crew members onboard.<\/p>\n
A report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) confirmed that the left inboard main landing gear wheel had separated from the Saab 340 during take-off, but air safety investigators have been unable to determine the exact cause.<\/p>\n
According to the report, the flight crew was alerted that the plane had lost a wheel by air traffic control (ATC) staff during the initial climb.<\/p>\n
They then placed the plane at “the minimum safe altitude” before reviewing a handbook for guidance, but could not find any checklist relevant to the situation.<\/p>\n
As the plane approached the edge of Canberra Airport’s control area, the flight crew decided to return to the airport.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A Link Airways flight carrying 19 passengers was forced to return to Canberra Airport after a wheel detached during take-off. (ABC News: Mark Moore)<\/p>\n
ATSB director of Transport Safety Stuart Macleod said it was clear the flight crew coordinated well with air traffic control to ensure the plane landed safely.<\/p>\n
“ATC and the flight crew demonstrated the importance of effective communication and decision-making in managing an unexpected aircraft malfunction,” Mr Macleod said.<\/p>\n
“In combination, their actions maintained safety margins and resulted in a safe landing.”<\/p>\n
Before landing, the flight crew took several safety precautions, including notifying ATC of their plans to return and putting emergency services on stand-by in case they were needed.<\/p>\n
The plane’s captain also made a radio call, declaring an “urgency condition”, which concerns the safety of an aircraft or its passengers.<\/p>\n
Airport emergency services reported no fire, smoke or fluid leaks from the landing gear.<\/p>\n
Once the plane returned to the runway, the crew shut down both engines, the aircraft was towed away and passengers were able to disembark.<\/p>\n
Wheel located near fence<\/p>\n
Canberra Airport safety staff later located the missing wheel “against an internal airport fence” on the eastern side of the runway.<\/p>\n
In its investigation, the ATSB found the wheel had separated from the plane due to bearing failure, but could not determine the cause.<\/p>\n
“Due to the degree of damage sustained by the bearing components, it was not possible to determine the cause of the bearing failure,” it wrote in its report.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
The flight crew flew the plane back to Canberra Airport after they approached the edge of the control area. (ABC News: Mark Moore)<\/p>\n
The ATSB said the failure could have resulted from a wide range of factors, including material or manufacturing defects, improper installation, insufficient lubrication and other possible causes.<\/p>\n
It also found the aircraft had been well maintained.<\/p>\n
“Maintenance records indicated that the wheel was installed and maintained in accordance with the relevant maintenance instructions, and there was a history of replacement of the bearing components,” the ATSB said.<\/p>\n
Link Airways inspects full fleet after incident<\/p>\n
After the incident, Link Airways conducted inspections of wheels across its entire fleet and did not find any faults, the report said.<\/p>\n
The airline has also implemented changes to its wheel-bearing maintenance schedule.<\/p>\n
The Swedish plane manufacturer provided the ATSB with data on similar incidents involving global Saab 340B operators.<\/p>\n
Since 1997, there have been 14 reported incidents involving a main landing gear wheel “departing” an aircraft, the ATSB report said.<\/p>\n
One of these incidents was investigated by safety investigators, while two involved bearing failures where the wheel did not separate from the aircraft.<\/p>\n
“The aircraft manufacturer advised the ATSB that it had not identified any trends or variations related to loss of wheel or main wheel bearing failure occurrences,” the report said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Link Airways flight bound for Newcastle lost a wheel during take-off from Canberra in January, forcing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2666,12366,64,63,12367,99,2667,182053,317631,340761,340763,340762],"class_list":["post-699487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-act","tag-atsb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-transport-safety-bureau","tag-business","tag-canberra","tag-canberra-airport","tag-link-airways","tag-saab-340","tag-stuart-macleod","tag-wheel-separated-in-take-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}