Wheel of a Delta Boeing 757 flew off while it was preparing to take off at ATL

Wheel of a Delta Boeing 757 flew off while it was preparing to take off at ATL(twitter.com)

63 points by EarthIsHome 2 years ago | 63 comments

SoftTalker 2 years ago |

All airliners occasionally have problems with wheels and/or tires. And occasionally have cracked window glass. And occasionally have engine failures. And occasionally have pressurization problems, Read avherald.com for a few days and you'll see that it happens to Airbus, Boeing, Embraer, Bombardier, and others. And with the number of flights worldwide, some kind of problem serious enough to cause a return to the aiport or diverting to an alternate happens almost every day.

Boeing has some serious questions to answer about their engineering and QA processes. But attributing random normal problems to that just confuses the issue.

cm2187 2 years ago | |

Plus B757 stopped being manufactured in 2004 so whatever problem this is, is unrelated to recent boeing manufacturing problems.

pavel_lishin 2 years ago | |

Is a wheel coming off of the front of an airplane a "normal problem" on par with an engine failure or a cracked window glass?

bombcar 2 years ago | | |

Various things related to it are common "enough" that you can find discussion around them - for example the Airbus sideways landing gear: https://safetyfirst.airbus.com/landing-with-nosewheels-at-90...

Of course, these are "normal problems" that shouldn't happen and need to be investigated, but it's not quite "the front fell off": https://youtu.be/3m5qxZm_JqM

mpreda 2 years ago | |

And all airliners ocasionally have two complete-loss crashes a few months apart?

(346 people died in two similar crashes: Lion Air Flight 610 on October 29, 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10, 2019)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_737_MAX_groundings

etskinner 2 years ago | | |

All that grandparent comment is saying is that this specific news story is a nothing burger, not that we should ignore other, bigger issues. In fact, they're saying that mentioning small issues like this is a red herring and a distraction. Presumably they agree that the recent Alaska Airlines door plug mishap and the total losses you mentioned are important.

Flatcircle 2 years ago |

Had a physics teacher in highschool, worked on a submarine. Told me that with government equipment like submarines, workers replace parts based on dates regardless of the wear and tear of the part. "If this screw is supposed to last 10 years, we're ordered to replace it in 7 years regardless of the condition."

With for profit companies, they'd try to push the parts to last 12 years instead of 10 by inspecting them and confirming they're still good.

Saving money this way isn't too big of a deal if you're McDonalds and it's an ice cream machine.

But if it's a for-profit airline it can turn into a problem.

wenc 2 years ago | |

It’s called predictive maintenance and it is the norm in many critical industries. Replacing equipment every fixed number of X years (no matter what the condition of the equipment is) is wasteful, costly disruptive and does not actually guarantee better reliability. (although it makes people feel better).

Most predictive maintenance is done with data — updated sensor data processed through a mathematical model derived from principles from reliability engineering. In a sense it’s actually more realistic than the X years model (which is a once off number derived from some reliability model too but doesn’t have the benefit of being updated with real data — it’s usually an overly conservative number)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictive_maintenance

There is no evidence that predictive maintenance is the cause of Boeing’s mishaps.

schiffern 2 years ago | | |

That's true, but also beside the point.

Flatcircle's point wasn't really predictive maintenance vs. fixed lifetime, it was about government using conservative design margins vs for-profit industry's riskier design margins.

Predictive maintenance lets you achieve a better cost-vs-risk curve, but the organization still needs to select a point somewhere along that curve.

malfist 2 years ago | | |

The other thing replacing the part can do (but not always) is guarantee you still have a source for those parts in the future. That's important for the military that might need to make more without much notice.

lawlessone 2 years ago | |

I've heard the word AI being used around this before... and it scares me.

wenc 2 years ago | | |

Why?

It’s just a marketing term. Most predictive maintenance models are ML or statistical learning models and have a great track record. Some call it AI to sound hip (you can any ML model AI these days) but it’s probably just a standard model from reliability engineering.

callalex 2 years ago |

Remember when every train derailment was 100% evidence that the USA was a failed state like Ancient Rome? That period lasted for a few months, I can’t wait till this one dies the same death.

bequanna 2 years ago |

Here comes the confirmation bias.

Now, every issue with a Boeing plane will be noticed, reported on and magnified. I'm not saying this is necessarily bad as there actually do seem to be some significant issues at Boeing. Hopefully, the result is an intense shakeup resulting in increased focus on quality.

ethbr1 2 years ago |

Great visualization of the outbound stack in the video.

I'm sure ATC was super happy to have orderly departures thrown into disarray.

brucethemoose2 2 years ago |

Looks like a misleading tweet, in the video it sounds like the tire came off like it was a flat maybe?

mvdtnz 2 years ago | |

Americans commonly use "tyre" and "wheel" interchangeably. Drives me nuts especially in motorsports where the distinction is important. But it is what it is. This was a case of a wheel coming off.

mrits 2 years ago | | |

Americans don’t use tyre

EarthIsHome 2 years ago | |

In the video:

> It just rolled off the runway behind you.

pimlottc 2 years ago | | |

That doesn't really answer it, most tires hold enough shape to be able to roll on their own.

paulpauper 2 years ago |

Is this going to become a 'thing' in which every airplane malfunction becomes a major news event.

xnx 2 years ago | |

For a few weeks anyway. Attention is fickle.

SushiHippie 2 years ago |

The link is just a clip from this video: https://youtu.be/basogKN3QSQ

(The tweet author credited the video creator!)

JCharante 2 years ago |

This happens from time to time for all aircraft models. It's why you should never be in the direct path of an aircraft taking off if you're plane spotting.

gregoriol 2 years ago |

It seems that the departure has been delayed by a 1h20min but the plane did take off?

pavel_lishin 2 years ago | |

They pulled the donut out of the trunk and slapped it on.

fuzzfactor 2 years ago |

From youtube comments:

"You picked a fine time to leave me loose wheel"

interestica 2 years ago |

Okay this is too on-the-nose in terms of metaphor

crossman 2 years ago | |

Actually it sounds like the problem is it was no longer on the nose...

weard_beard 2 years ago | |

“The wheels are coming off”, you say?

georgyo 2 years ago | | |

Very relevant skit

https://youtu.be/3m5qxZm_JqM?si=jrExOJWxTPIVECel