2 Wheels Fall From Helicopter; No One Injured

IRVINE —  A Marine helicopter flying 2,000 feet over an Irvine neighborhood Monday afternoon lost its front wheels, which bounced within feet of homes.

“It sounded like something hit the house,” said Katherine Kroger, 49, who lives on Racing Wind in Woodbridge. “I ran out to see what happened, and there it was: a tire hissing out front.”

The Super Stallion helicopter was flying home to the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station from a routine training flight at 3:30 p.m. when its front nose gear assembly, including two wheels and a shaft, dropped off, said Marine Sgt. Arnold Patterson.

Although the street was lined with houses and cars, none was hit. The wheels, each about the size of a car’s spare, hit grass and left a couple of 6-inch gashes.

The Marines said they were investigating Monday night to determine why the wheels fell off.

A hydraulic pressure gauge alerted the pilot and two crew members that the 73,000-pound helicopter had lost its front landing gear, Patterson said. The crew called the Tustin tower, where the field was prepared for an emergency landing. Mattresses were piled 6 feet high to cushion the disabled aircraft, Patterson said.

“Luckily, the aircraft landed safely,” he said. “The pilot, co-pilot and crew chief were uninjured.”

Patterson said the two wheels landed on opposite sides of Racing Wind. One hit about 18 feet from Kroger’s house, bounced off the grass, knocked out a four-inch chunk of curb, and came to rest on the sidewalk, he said. The other hit the grass and stayed there.

A wheel falling 2,000 feet would be going hundreds of miles an hour when it landed, UCI associate physics professor Rognvald Garden said Monday.

“Just imagine a car wheel traveling hundreds of miles an hour and then colliding into a stationary pedestrian,” Garden said. “That would certainly be deadly.”

Although Kroger said she crosses the spot where the wheel hit to get her mail every day, she wasn’t shaken.

“It was just a freak thing,” she said. “I was worried how the helicopter was going to land without tires.”