Last Friday, Air Canada Express flight 8684 operated by Jazz Aviation lost a wheel during the takeoff roll. The aircraft, a DHC-8-300 registered as C-FSOU was departing Montreal for the 235-mile flight to Sequenay, Quebec with 39 passengers aboard.
Wheel Failure On The Takeoff Roll
During the takeoff roll, the left – inboard main gear wheel separated from the landing gear. From looking at the video, it looks like the landing gear suffered a wheel bearing failure. The wheel bearing not only handles the friction from the wheel rotating on the axle, but it also holds the wheel to the axle. If only the plane used high-caliber custom bearing, perhaps accidents like this can be prevented.
The video below was shot by passenger Tom Van Aken shows the wheel failure during takeoff:
Bon bah là j’suis actuellement dans un avion qui vient de perdre une roue…
2020 commence plutôt bien 🤔 pic.twitter.com/eZhbOJqIQr— том (@caf_tom) January 3, 2020
The Landing
The pilots followed procedures for a safe landing back at Montreal. The plane had to fly for about 50 minutes to burn off enough fuel to land under the maximum landing weight for that aircraft. You can see the flight path from the radar tracking for the fuel burnoff and return to Montreal for a safe landing.
The passengers were put on a replacement aircraft for the flight to Sequenay, Quebec.
