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Boeing "Dreamlifter" at the start (archive picture): With 17 wheels, the safe landing was successful
Photo: AP/dpa
A small cloud of black smoke, then one of the tires falls to the ground.
These are unusual images from the airport in the southern Italian city of Taranto (Tarent), but they do not appear to have any serious consequences.
A converted Boeing 747 known as the "Dreamlifter" lost a wheel in the air seconds after takeoff Tuesday morning, amateur video showed.
The large cargo plane nevertheless landed safely in the USA a good eleven hours later: on its remaining, still intact 17 wheels in Charleston in the US state of South Carolina.
The incident caused a stir in the flight scene.
According to the flight data service Flightradar24, shortly after 8 p.m. CEST on Tuesday evening, more than 11,000 people followed the live flight data from the cargo plane, which regularly transports aircraft parts on the Taranto-Charleston route.
At that time, it was the flight whose tracking data was accessed most frequently worldwide.
A so-called flight spotter then shared a video of the landing in Charleston on Twitter.
"Looks like a perfect landing on 17 wheels," wrote Flightradar24.
hba/dpa