Boeing 737: FlySafair plane screeches down runway and forced to make emergency landing after one of its wheels explodes during takeoff

A Boeing 737 plane was forced to make an emergency landing in South Africa after engineers noticed one of its four rear wheels had exploded during takeoff. Dramatic footage of the incident, which occurred on Sunday 21 April, shows the aircraft engulfed in smoke as it makes a loud bang when it hits the runway. 

The FlySafair flight had only just got off the ground to begin the two-hour journey from Johannesburg to Cape Town on Sunday before ground staff ordered it back when they spotted damage. When notified, the pilots made a low pass over the runway so engineers could inspect the damage from the ground. This is when they noticed that one of the four rear wheels had been clipped during the takeoff.

The plane was subsequently forced to land. No-one was injured during the incident and all passengers were safely evacuated.

A passenger on the plane wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “I'm inside the plane everything is fine, the pilots handled it very well, well done to them”. Another user said: “Well done to the pilots”.

The incident came just a month after a similar incident where a United Airlines flight lost a wheel as it was departing San Francisco. It is also the latest incident involving a Boeing aircraft while the firm is under huge pressure and scrutiny following the Alaska Airlines incident on 5 January which saw a door panel blow off a 737 Max 9 aircraft shortly after take-off.  It has been revealed that on the day the door plug blew out, the plane was scheduled for a safety check. 

The New York Times reports that interviews and documents show that the plane was kept in service despite engineers and technicians wanting the plane to come out of service the next evening and undergo maintenance. The engineers were concerned about the mounting evidence of a problem. 

Boeing declined to comment on the FlySafair incident. The firm told The New York Post that the airline maintains its own fleet.