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A Frontier Airlines flight from Orlando had a brush with danger when one of the plane's wheels came off during a hard landing and some of its fragments were sucked into the engine, a new report said.
The preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board describes the events that unfolded as the Frontier plane landed in San Juan, Puerto Rico back on April 15.
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WATCH HEREThe incident happened as the plane, an Airbus A321-271NX carrying 235 passengers and crew that had left from Orlando International Airport, was landing at Luis Munoz Marin International Airport.
According to the report, the captain said the crew heard a loud bang coming from under the fuselage and an engine failure was displayed on the plane's monitor.
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The air traffic control tower reported an engine fire, though the crew said they only had an engine failure, but they decided to abort the landing and do a "go-around," the report said.
The captain did a low pass by the air traffic control tower to see if the controllers could determine if all three landing gear appeared to be down, and the controller reported that the landing gear was intact, the report said.
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The plane landed safely and the fire department approached to inspect the engine, the report said.
"No fire was present, and the captain elected to coordinate for airstairs to deplane the aircraft rather than using the evacuation slides," the report said. "He felt there was no threat to life and the slides posed a greater danger to passengers than the airstairs. He also noted that there were 8 wheelchair passengers on board. The passengers were unloaded via airstairs and bussed to the terminal."
An inspection of the airplane revealed that the nose landing gear left wheel and tire had separated from its axle and came off the plane after the initial hard landing, the report said.
"Metal fragments from the wheel assembly appear to have been ingested by the number one (left) engine and damage was found on the engine's inlet cowl liner, thrust reverser, fan blades, and guide vanes," the report said.
No one was injured in the incident, and the investigation is ongoing.
