Whilst taking off from Edinburgh Airport the right wheel from the nose leg gear detached from the aircraft. The detachment was not observed by the airfield operations department and the flight crew were unaware of the loss of the wheel. They continued the flight and landed at Belfast City Airport without any abnormal indications or adverse aircraft performance. The wheel was first noticed missing as the aircraft taxied onto stand at Belfast. A failure of the wheel axle caused by bearing overheat was identified as the cause of the wheel detachment. A number of potential contributing factors were identified, but the cause of the bearing overheat could not be positively determined.
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