A British Airways Airbus A350-1000 departing Las Vegas for London Heathrow shed a wheel during takeoff, turning a routine long-haul departure into a globally watched safety scare. The aircraft continued across the Atlantic and landed safely in the United Kingdom, but the dramatic loss of part of its landing gear, captured on video, has triggered an official investigation and fresh scrutiny of how modern jets are designed to cope when something goes badly wrong.
Passengers on the flight, which left Harry Reid International Airport on a Monday in late Jan, were unaware at first that a wheel had separated from the main landing gear. Only after the jet was airborne did the scale of the incident become clear on the ground, as footage of the wheel tumbling away from the runway began circulating and airport staff moved to secure the debris.
What happened on the runway in Las Vegas
The incident unfolded as a British Airways Airbus A350-1000 accelerated for departure from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, bound for London. As the jet lifted off, one wheel on the right, rear main landing gear detached and rolled away from the aircraft, a failure that multiple reports describe as occurring during the critical takeoff phase on Monday, Jan. 26. Initial accounts of the episode, framed as NEED TO KNOW details about a British Airways plane losing a wheel in Las Vegas on a Monday in Jan, underline how sudden the separation appeared to those watching from the ground, with the wheel clearly visible leaving the aircraft and bouncing away from the runway area in Nevada for London’s Heathrow Airport, according to NEED.
Flight-tracking specialists later detailed that, on 26 January, the right, rear main landing gear wheel fell off a British Airways A350-1000 operating from Las Vegas to London as it departed, specifying that the failure involved the A350-1000 main landing gear rather than the nose gear or another system. That account of the right, rear wheel separating from the British Airways jet departing Las Vegas for London is supported by technical summaries that focus on the A350-1000 main landing gear layout and the sequence of events during the takeoff roll, as outlined in British Airways.
Video, timing and the view from the ground
From the terminal and nearby vantage points, witnesses captured the moment the wheel separated, footage that quickly spread online and turned a technical malfunction into a viral spectacle. One widely shared clip shows the aircraft already committed to takeoff as the wheel breaks free and rolls away onto a grassy bank beside the runway, a sequence that aligns with descriptions of video footage of the incident showing the wheel bouncing away onto a grassy bank, as referenced in According.
Observers on the apron and in the terminal described a mix of shock and disbelief as they watched the British Airways jet continue its climb despite the missing wheel, a reaction echoed in reports that frame the episode as a moment when a British Airways plane loses a wheel during takeoff in Las Vegas, and as a moment a BA plane to London loses a wheel after takeoff in Veg, captured in short video segments focused on air travel that highlight the suddenness of the failure and the aircraft’s continued ascent toward London, as seen in Moment British Airways.
Inside the cabin and across the Atlantic
For those on board, the early stages of the flight reportedly felt routine, even as the missing wheel prompted activity on the ground and among controllers. Accounts describe the aircraft, identified as a British Airways Airbus A350-1000, continuing its climb from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas toward cruise altitude, with passengers initially unaware that a component of the landing gear had detached during takeoff, a situation summarized in key takeaways that note a British Airways Airbus A350-1000 lost a wheel during takeoff from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, as detailed in Key Takeaways.
Only later did the flight bound for London face what some described as a chaotic start, with reports noting that a plane bound for London faced a terrifying start when one of its wheels detached shortly after departure, language that captures the emotional impact on travelers even as the crew and systems kept the situation under control. That characterization of a flight from Las Vegas turning chaotic as a plane loses a wheel mid air on its way to London, framed alongside references to a flight-control software vulnerability in broader aviation coverage, appears in summaries that invite readers to Sign Up for Our Cheat Sheet Newsletter while recounting the episode, as seen in Sign Up for.
How the A350-1000 is built to cope with a missing wheel
The Airbus A350-1000 is designed with redundancy in its landing gear, a feature that helps explain why the aircraft could continue safely despite losing a single wheel. The type uses four wheel main bogies on each main gear assembly, meaning that even if one tire is missing or flat, the remaining wheels can still support the aircraft’s weight on landing, a point underscored in technical explanations that state this means it has a configuration that can tolerate a missing tire and that, despite the missing wheel, the jet could land safely while the airline cooperated with investigators, as outlined in a NEED and KNOW style breakdown of how British Airways and Las Vegas authorities view the Monday incident in Jan, detailed in NEED.
Detailed aircraft data identify the jet involved as a British Airways Airbus A350-1000 registered as G-XWBN, operating flight BA274 from Harry Reid Internati to London, and note that the A350-1000 uses four wheel main bogies that distribute loads across multiple tires. That configuration, described in technical write ups that begin On January 26, 2026, and emphasize the British Airways Airbus registration XWBN and the role of Harry Reid Internati in the departure, helps explain why the crew and engineers could be confident in the aircraft’s ability to land with one wheel missing from the bogie, as set out in On January.
Investigation, oversight and what comes next
Regulators and the airline have already moved to examine how a wheel could separate from a modern widebody jet at such a critical moment. British Airways is assisting with an investigation after a main landing gear wheel detached from one of its A350-1000s on takeoff, a process that involves safety specialists reviewing maintenance records, component histories and flight data from the aircraft, a cooperation described in safety focused reports that state British Airways is assisting with investigation after a main landing gear wheel separated and that the carrier has multiple A350-1000s in its fleet, as noted in British Airways.
Officials are also looking at the broader operational picture, including how the flight was handled once the problem was known and how the aircraft’s systems responded. According to FlightAware, the aircraft took off at 8.44pm local time and arrived in the UK at around 2.30pm, a timeline that shows the crew and controllers opted to continue across the Atlantic rather than divert, while The Federal Aviation Ad is referenced in coverage that notes the role of regulators in reviewing such events, as captured in summaries that begin According to FlightAware and highlight The Federal Aviation Ad in connection with the British Airways flight that lost a wheel on takeoff for Heathrow, as detailed in Federal Aviation Ad.
