Near tragedy: New accident with Boeing 737 – It lost its wheel on takeoff [vid] – Newsbomb – News

At the last moment, an air tragedy was avoided with a Boeing 737 “protagonist” again, this time in South Africa.

The aircraft lost a wheel shortly after takeoff, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing.

The incident comes amid turmoil for Boeing in the wake of Sam Salehpour’s testimony to Congress last week, in which he accused the company of playing “Russian roulette” with people’s lives.

Boeing denied Salehpour’s statements and sought to calm public fears following a series of incidents since the start of the year.

The company says claims about the structural integrity of the 787 are false.

Two Boeing engineering executives said this week that in both design tests and inspections of the planes — some of them 12 years old — there were no findings of fatigue or cracks.

Security personnel at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, noticed that the FlySafair aircraft had damaged its landing gear during take-off on 21 April.

After being ordered back, the pilots made a low pass over the runway so engineers could inspect the damage.

They found that one of the four rear wheels had sheared off during takeoff and ordered the plane to land. But video of the landing shows the wheel disintegrating as the plane attempted to taxi onto the runway.

The clip shows Flight FA212 with smoke billowing from the damaged wheel.

Seconds later, there was an explosion and parts of the wheel flew off as the landing gear collapsed, sending the jet pitching before coming to a stop.

Miraculously there were no injuries to passengers, who immediately evacuated it and were forwarded to its destination on another flight.

The incident comes amid a series of recent accidents involving the troubled 737 plane, raising safety questions among concerned passengers.

In March, former Boeing employee John Barnett was found dead in his truck in South Carolina while on his way to file a lawsuit against the company.

The 62-year-old claimed that workers, under pressure, were deliberately fitting inferior parts to the aircraft while on the assembly line.

Barnett had claimed that second-rate parts were literally taken from waste bins, before being fitted to planes being built to avoid delays.

A 2017 review by the FAA confirmed some of his concerns, requiring Boeing to take action.

Barnett’s job for 32 years was to oversee production standards for the company’s planes — standards he said were not met during his four years at the then-new Charleston plant from 2010 to 2014.

Barnett claimed he notified his superiors at the plant of his suspicions, but no action was ever taken. Boeing denied this, as well as his claims.