A regional airline has proactively replaced the last of a particular model of landing gear wheel across its Saab 340 fleet, after a section of inner wheel rim fractured and separated while one of its aircraft was taxiing at Melbourne Airport earlier this year.
An ATSB investigation report details that a routine post-flight inspection of a Link Airways Saab 340B that had just landed in Melbourne after a flight from Orange in NSW’s Central West on 1 April 2026 identified a deflated main landing gear tyre and that a section of the inner wheel rim was missing.
No other damage was sustained by the aircraft and the flight crew reported not noticing anything abnormal about the landing or taxi.
After one of the pilots advised air traffic control of the missing rim section, airside safety officers conducted a foreign object damage inspection, with the missing section then found on the lead-in to the aircraft’s parking bay.
As a precaution the operator subsequently removed and inspected the other wheel on the same landing gear leg, using non-destructive testing to identify a hairline crack in the rim of that wheel as well.
“The fractured wheel and cracked wheel on the same landing gear leg were of a design that was previously established to be susceptible to cracking in the bead seat region,” ATSB Director of Transport Safety Dr Stuart Godley said.
The ATSB’s final report notes similar wheel fractures were investigated by the ATSB in 2009 and 2019.
“From the evidence available, ultimately the factors contributing to the fracture and cracking of the wheels could not be conclusively determined.
“Nevertheless, the constant factor in this occurrence, and those previously investigated, was the susceptibility of the pre‑redesign wheel subassembly to fracture.”
While not required to, Link Airways subsequently removed the affected wheel type from service across its fleet.
“The 3 wheel-fracture occurrences investigated by the ATSB indicate that as long as these specific wheels continue to be operated with the existing inspection regime, there remains an increased likelihood of in-service wheel fracture,” Dr Godley concluded.
“However, the susceptible wheel subassemblies appear to make up only a small percentage of those currently in service, based on the records of the overhaul organisation, and so the likelihood of in-service fracture would be respectively small.”
In addition, in each of the 3 wheel‑fracture events investigated in Australia there was no significant adverse safety outcome.
“As such, the ATSB considers the ongoing safety risk presented by the ongoing use of these wheels to be low.”
Read the final report: Main landing gear wheel fracture involving Saab 340B, VH-VEF, Melbourne Airport, Victoria, on 1 April 2026