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In an incident captured on video, a piece of the landing gear on a PAL Airlines plane came off during landing on Friday in Wabush.
Lee Pitts, a CBC producer, was travelling on a multi-stop plane connecting coastal parts of Labrador when he captured a wheel flying straight off seconds after touching the tarmac.
“The first thing I thought was I am glad I am taking the video because no one is going to believe this,” Pitts said.
He says despite the loss, the landing of Flight 901 was still smooth and the airplane managed to taxi everyone off the plane. No injuries were reported.
But Pitts says he noticed something was wrong with the plane before it lost the wheel. When taking off from Goose Bay, he says, a kid yelled smoke was coming from the wheel but was quickly dismissed as splashing water due to the runway being wet.
However, the more Pitts kept looking, he thought it might actually be smoke.
“Whether it was steam or smoke, I don’t know, but it could have been smoke from a wheel bearing or brake pad, in hindsight,” said Pitts.
A wheel comes off seconds after PAL flight PB901, from St. John’s to Wabush, touches down on the tarmac on Oct. 30. This video was captured by a CBC employee on the flight.
As soon as the plane took off, he noticed the wheel wobbling and filmed it. He did the same thing when landing in Wabush.
Pitts said after landing, when everyone was off the plane, maintenance went to look at the wheel but passengers weren’t informed about what happened to the landing gear. He says what they were told was the airline was unaware if they would be able to continue flights.
However, a written statement provided by a PAL Airlines’ spokesperson says that an additional aircraft was dispatched to allow customers to continue on their travel.
Joseph Galimberti also clarified Flight 901 endured a wheel bearing failure upon landing.
Galimberti said PAL has been in contact with Transport Canada and the incident will continue to be investigated to determine the cause.
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