An incoming aircraft had to overshoot a runway at Dublin Airport after the crew spotted a wheel on the ground which had fallen off a Ryanair aircraft.
The Ryanair aircraft had earlier returned to its departure stand after the crew heard a loud bang as they prepared to take off for a flight to Paris with 81 passengers on board.
A report on the incident, which took place on December 3rd, 2000, was published yesterday by the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) of the Department of Transport.
It found that the accident was caused by overheating to the nose wheel axle during a maintenance operation. This induced surface cracks in the axle that "significantly reduced its fatigue resistance".
The Boeing 737-204 craft had been correctly maintained in accordance with the appropriate schedules and the failure of the axle did not result from a heavy landing event, the AAIU concluded.
The incident happened after the aircraft left its stand at the terminal area and taxied to runway 28, in preparation for the scheduled flight to Paris.
The crew heard the bang as the plane entered the runway. They then noticed "a slight difficulty in steering the aircraft", the AAIU report says.
Believing they had suffered a nose tyre puncture, the crew sought and received clearance to return to the departure stand. On arrival there, ground crew alerted the flight crew that the right nose wheel was missing.
The flight crew informed air traffic control of the situation, the report says.
"In the meantime, another aircraft, approaching to land on runway 28, observed the wheel on the runway, effected an overshoot, and reported debris on the runway".
The runway was then closed while a runway inspection was completed.
