Boeing 747 Dreamlifter - Landing Gear falls off right After Takeoff

Boeing 747 Dreamlifter Wheel Separation, Taranto

On 11 October 2022, an Atlas Air-operated Boeing 747-4H6(LCF) Dreamlifter, registration N718BA, departed Taranto-Grottaglie Airport in southern Italy on flight GTI4231 for Charleston International Airport in South Carolina. The aircraft was operating on behalf of Boeing and was carrying large aircraft components associated with Boeing’s 787 production programme. The departure appeared routine until the aircraft was only a few dozen metres above the runway.

During the initial climb from runway 35, a wheel separated from the left rear main landing-gear assembly. Witness video showed smoke from the landing gear immediately before the wheel detached. The detached wheel left the airport perimeter and was later recovered in a nearby vineyard. There were no reported injuries or ground property damage.

The important operational question was what the crew would do after losing part of a main landing-gear assembly immediately after takeoff. The available accounts indicate that the crew assessed the aircraft as controllable and elected not to return to Taranto. Instead, the Dreamlifter continued its planned westbound journey across the Atlantic. That decision was significant because the aircraft was a very large wide-body freighter, but the loss involved only one of its multiple main wheels and did not prevent normal control of the aircraft.

The aircraft continued to Charleston and landed safely on runway 15 about eleven hours after departure, according to contemporary aviation reporting. The Dreamlifter landed safely on runway 15 and stopped normally. Boeing subsequently confirmed the safe arrival and said it would assist with the investigation. The incident therefore ended without injuries even though a large landing-gear component had separated at a particularly sensitive point in the flight.

The available reporting does not establish the mechanical root cause of the wheel separation. It is therefore more accurate to describe the event as a main-gear wheel separation and subsequent safe continuation of the flight than to assign a maintenance or component failure cause that has not been established in the available sources.

The aircraft involved was a 747-400-derived Large Cargo Freighter, a configuration designed to carry oversized aircraft structures. That context explains why the flight was operating between an Italian production site and Boeing's South Carolina facility. The loss of a wheel did not prevent the aircraft from completing the mission, but the location and timing of the separation made the event significant: the wheel departed while the aircraft was still in the initial climb and landed outside the airport perimeter.

The contemporary reports also show why the ground consequence was treated seriously even though the aircraft itself remained controllable. The detached wheel was a large landing-gear component, and it travelled beyond the airport boundary into a vineyard. The event therefore combined a manageable airborne abnormality with a potentially hazardous object falling from a departing aircraft. The absence of reported ground injuries or property damage was confirmed in the reporting used .

Accident Facts

Sources

• Video source (ATC/audio reconstruction)
• AirTime, “Footage captures moment Boeing 747 Dreamlifter loses a wheel after take-off,” 12 October 2022.
• AeroInside, “Boeing BLCF at Taranto on Oct 11th 2022, dropped wheel on departure.”
• Aviation Safety Network, ASN 294373.
• Video/ATC recording