Sydney, July 27: A nose wheel fell off a Boeing 737 belonging to budget Australian airline Virgin Blue while it was taxiing for takeoff at Melbourne Airport, news reports said Monday.
Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association secretary Steve Purvinas said that Saturday’s incident showed the need for safety checks before all flights.
“In this case, we were lucky that the failure occurred on the ground,” he told national broadcaster ABC. “The release of the wheel assembly in-flight could have seen a loss of aircraft.”
A ground engineer noticed the lost wheel and alerted the pilot.
—-Agencies