Boeing 757 nose wheel: Plane's tyre falls off as Delta Air Lines flight prepares to take off from Atlanta Airport

A nose wheel fell off a Boeing 757 plane as it was preparing to take off on the runway at Atlanta's international airport. The incident occurred on Saturday (20 January) while 184 passengers were on board. 

The nose gear “popped off and rolled down the hill” when Delta Air Lines Flight 982 was preparing to take off for Bogota in Colombia, according to a report from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which was filed on Monday (22 January). The report added that none of the passengers or six crew members were injured during the incident.

A spokesperson for Delta confirmed a "nose gear tire came loose from the landing gear" on the plane scheduled to fly from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The spokesperson told Sky News: “All customers and their bags were removed from the aircraft, transferred to the gate and on to a replacement aircraft. We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience.”

According to the air traffic control audio included in the FAA report, reported by ABC news, a controller is heard alerting the pilot, saying: “One of your nose tires just came off. It just rolled off the runway behind you.” According to the outlet citing the details of the FAA report the nose wheel landed on the south side of the runway.

Boeing did not immediately issue a statement on the incident. The FAA told the New York Times that it was continuing its investigation of the incident.

It comes as Boeing faces huge scrutiny and inspection over the safety of its planes after a panel on one of its Boeing 737 Max 9 planes blew out mid-flight on 5 January. The incident occurred on an Alaska Airlines flight - no one was injured but the FAA subsequently grounded all 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes to launch a safety investigation. 

On Tuesday (23 January), Ben Minicucci, CEO of Alaska Airlines, told Sky News' US partner network NBC News that he is “angry” about the incident and revealed loose bolts have been found on “many” Boeing aircraft. Minicucci said: "I am angry. This happened to Alaska Airlines.  It happened to our guests and happened to our people. My demand on Boeing is what are they going to do to improve their quality programmes in-house."