Colgan Air Q400 Loses Wheel Caught on Camera

A Continental Airlines plane that lost a wheel in a dramatic touchdown captured on tape by a Toronto-area man has been repaired and yesterday returned to shuttling passengers in New York. Investigators with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and those with the planes Downsview manufacturer, Bombardier, probed Tuesdays incident at Buffalo International Airport and cleared the Q400 for service. The jaw-dropping, 37-second video was obtained by the Toronto Sun from a passenger on the flight, who didnt want to be identified. Yesterday, it was aired on major U.S. news outlets, including ABC, NBC and CBS, and was the lead item on the New York Post website. The Canadian-made Q400 Bombardier turbo-prop, which has had a recent association with technical glitches, was the aircraft that crashed near Buffalo in February of this year, killing 50 people. The video shows Flight 3268 — with 73 people on board and operated by Colgan Airlines — landing Tuesday when ashes and debris fell off the wheel as it was lowered. Parts of the landing gear and a right wheel could be seen falling off. Audio from the Buffalo air control tower suggested the pilot wasnt aware the wheel had detached until told by a controller, who shut down a runway so the parts could be found by ground workers. The plane was towed to a parking spot. FAA spokesman Jim Peters said a hydraulic line leading to a main gear was cut and part of a hub assembly of the landing gear was missing. The parts were found in grass along the runway. This is a straight incident where a tire came off an aircraft, Peters said from New York City yesterday. Some parts were lost from a hub assembly. He said the aircraft was back on its scheduled Newark-to-Buffalo run yesterday. Bombardier spokesman John Arnone said the parts that fell off are being sent to the manufacturer to determine what happened. This is a rare and unusual incident, Arnone said. We are trying to determine the root cause of the incident. He said the wheel that came off was recently replaced by technicians. Robert Deluce, founder of Torontos Porter Airlines that has several Q400s in its fleet, called the plane a safe and reliable aircraft, with a great safety record. We have the highest maintenance and reliability record of any Q400, Deluce said yesterday. There is no indication that this is anything other than a localized incident. There is no indication that this is a fleet problem.