NATION : Jet Loses Wheel, Lands Safely
A Continental Airlines jetliner with 85 people aboard made a safe emergency landing here today after losing one of a pair of landing gear wheels on takeoff, authorities said.
Flight 358 had left Ft. Myers on Florida’s Gulf Coast en route to Newark, N.J., and Boston when the wheel detached, said Arlene Salac of the Federal Aviation Administration in Atlanta.
“The right outer main gear wheel came off of the aircraft,” she said. “There are two wheels on each gear, but one of them is what came off.”
The plane was diverted to Orlando International Airport and circled before landing at 1:36 p.m., said airport spokeswoman Linda Desrosiers. It landed without incident and the passengers were taken off by bus.
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