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THIS is the terrifying moment a wheel falls off a Boeing 737 fully loaded with passengers as smoke billows from the commercial jet.

Dramatic footage showed the plane grinding along the runway before it was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff.

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Worried airport safety staff at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, noticed the FlySafair aircraft had damaged its undercarriage on takeoff.

Before landing, the plane made a low pass over the airport so technical teams could visually inspect the landing gear, the airline said.

Upon inspection of the damage, engineers found one of four rear wheels had been clipped during takeoff and ordered the plane down.

But video footage of the landing shows the wheel disintegrating as the plane tried to taxi down the runway.

Sunday’s clip shows flight FA212 with smoke billowing from the damaged wheel.

Seconds later, a huge bang and parts of the wheel flew off as the undercarriage collapsed sending the jet leaning sideways towards its left wing as it ground to a halt.

Despite being fully loaded, no-one was injured and passengers were evacuated and offered another flight, according to local media reports.

Following the scare, Chief Marketing Officer at FlySafair, Kirby Gordon, said: “After take-off, ground staff at OR Tambo reported witnessing what appeared to be damage to one of the aircraft back wheels.

“The crew were alerted to the observation and the decision was taken to return to Johannesburg.”

The aircraft then entered a holding pattern to burn off fuel for a safer landing.

Gordon explained this is standard procedure when there is no urgency to land, as it’s safer to land with a lighter fuel load.

“Modern Boeing 737 aircraft do not have the facility to dump fuel,” he said.

Gordon added: “The aircraft passed overhead at approximately 13:20, and observers confirmed that one of the four rear wheels had come adrift during the take-off roll.

“The wheel affected was one of the two attached to the left rear landing strut.

“Response vehicles were activated to greet the plane as a precautionary measure.

“After landing, the aircraft was inspected by safety and engineering teams on the runway before the plane was brought back to the terminal.”

Regional General Manager Jabulani Khambule added: “We would like to praise the FlySafair pilots and crew for their professional handling of this emergency.

“Their training and experience ensured that all passengers on board the plane walked away unscathed.”

The Sun has approached Boeing for comment.

This is the latest incident in a string of recent controversies involving the troubled plane maker, raising safety questions among worried passengers.

In January, the door of the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 lost a blew out at 16,000ft, prompting a six-week audit by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The FAA reportedly found dozens of issues in the production process, later saying it would not let Boeing expand manufacture until it is satisfied with its quality control.

The Administration also grounded certain Boeing 737s with all airlines until proper inspections were completed.

And just days ago a Boeing engineer turned whistleblower told a US Senate inquiry panel that the way some aircraft are manufactured “significantly reduced” safety.

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WHISTLEBLOWER SPEAKS OUT

Brave Sam Salehpour described how he witnessed workers jumping on plane parts to force them to fit on “defected” aircraft.

He went on to say he was told to “shut up” and threatened by Boeing bosses after constantly raising serious safety concerns over how the planes were being assembled.

Salehpour took part in the bombshell back-to-back US Congress hearings this week as he testified against his employers.

The engineer worked at Boeing for a decade and claims he tried to warn them of his concerns over much of that time period.

At the Congress hearing Salehpour said: “I’m not here today because I want to be here.

“I am here because I feel I must come forward because I do not want to see a 787 or another 777 crash.

“I was ignored, told not to create delays, told, frankly, to shut up…

“My boss said, ‘I would have killed someone who said what you said,’ during a meeting.”

His biggest issues were with how the 787 jets were being assembled over the past three years.

In one of the shocking claims he said: “I literally saw people jumping on pieces of the airplane to get them to align.

“I repeatedly produced reports for my supervisor and Boeing management that the gaps on the 787 were not being properly measured or shimmed into two major joints of the 787.”

Salehpour found that across 29 planes, major gaps were reported but not addressed a staggering 98.7 per cent of the time.

In a further 80 per cent of cases, the unclosed gaps ended up being filled with debris, he told Congress.

I’m scared but I’m at peace. If something happens to me, I’m at peace. I feel like by coming forward I’m saving a lot of lives

Sam SalehpourBoeing whistleblower

Salehpour said his complaints were all ignored and he was made to move from project to project due to his damning reports.

He even made allegations saying he was sent death threats for his criticisms.

“I’m scared but I’m at peace. If something happens to me, I’m at peace,” he said.

“I feel like by coming forward I’m saving a lot of lives.”

BOEING’S RESPONSE

Boeing has always maintained their 787 and 777 jets are safe to fly.

Engineers on Monday, 15, rejected the claims by Salehpour, saying the metal surfaces on the planes don’t fatigue.

According to Boeing, 165,000 flights were looked at with no signs of fatigue being recorded on any of them.

A spokesperson for Boeing previously told The Sun: “Since 2020, Boeing has taken important steps to foster a safety culture that empowers and encourages all employees to raise their voice.

“We know we have more work to do and we are taking action across our company. 

“We continue to put safety and quality above all else and share information transparently with our regulator, customers and other stakeholders.”

Salehpour’s claims come as Boeing continues to be put under pressure for a number of “defective” aircraft after hundreds of deaths, crashes and calamities have been linked back to the company.

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RECENT CONTROVERSIES

Another former Boeing employee turned whistleblower John Barnett, 62, gave evidence against the company just days before he died from a “self-inflicted” wound.

He had been providing evidence of alleged wrongdoing at Boeing to investigators working on a lawsuit against the company at the time of his death, according to the BBC.

In 2019, he told reporters he had seen workers purposely fitting sub-standard parts onto aircraft on the production line.

Barnett claimed that defective parts were mishandled and sometimes lost or refitted to planes from the company scrapyard to meet production timelines.

He also alleged that he had discovered major issues in some of the planes’ oxygen systems which could lead to one in four masks not functioning properly.

He also says his complaints were ignored.

Boeing was also in the headlines recently for having a number of serious issues with its planes.

Fifty passengers were injured on a LATAM flight on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner flying between Australia and New Zealand due to a “technical issue”.

The plane subsequently took a terrifying nosedive.

Shocking footage also caught showing the moment a wheel fell off a Boeing 777 flying over California, grounding the flight intended for Japan.

Pictures show cars smashed up on the ground as the wheel collided with parked up motors.

Terrifying footage captured the moment a Boeing 737’s engine cover ripped off mid-air earlier this month.

The Houston-bound flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Denver on Sunday after the engine cowling struck the wing flap.

A pilot was even forced to turn his plane around after poo flowed out into the cabin of a Boeing 777 due to a defective toilet.

Meanwhile, Boeing has been sued by shareholders claiming that the company prioritised profit over safety, according to Reuters.

In February, the FAA concluded that Boeing had “a lack of awareness of safety-related metrics at all levels.”

It also said that “employees had difficulty distinguishing the differences among various measuring methods, their purpose and outcomes.”

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FATAL BOEING CRASHES

On March 10, 2019, 157 passengers were killed when an Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed after taking off from an Addis Abeba airport.

Shortly after takeoff, the pilot reported issues and requested a turn around.

The Boeing 737 MAX 8s, which crashed at Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, about 31 miles south of the capital city, were delivered to the airline roughly four months ago.

The flight carried 149 passengers and eight crew members, but no one survived.

Nine British passengers died on the flight, two more than initially expected.

It was the second incident in less than six months that a plane crashed within minutes of takeoff, following a new Lion Air Boeing 737 Max 8 flight over the Java Sea in October 2018.

One toddler was among the six people rescued from the sea.

Tragically, 189 people died in Indonesia just moments after the pilot reported “technical difficulties”.

According to the firm’s CEO, the jet was repaired the night before.

In 2018, a woman was killed when a piece of engine housing ripped off a Southwest Airlines 737 and destroyed the window adjacent to her seat.

She was partially sucked out of the plane as it lost cabin pressure before other passengers pulled her back in.

Seven others were injured.

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