Wheel falls off plane bound for O’Hare, lands in yard of Jefferson Park home

A wheel fell off a small plane bound for O’Hare International Airport Thursday and landed in the yard of a home in Jefferson Park on the Northwest Side.

The wheel “disconnected from an aircraft” and was discovered in the yard just before 7 p.m. in the 5500 block of West Leland Avenue, according to Chicago police. No injuries were reported.

The Chicago Department of Aviation said the wheel fell off Boutique Air Flight 835, which runs “an essential air service route between Chicago and Ironwood in Michigan’s upper peninsula.”

Airfield operators at O’Hare were notified of the incident when the plane, a single-engine Pilatus PC12, landed on Runway 28Center, sending sparks flying from the missing left landing gear, CDA said. None of the five passengers or two crew members on the flight were injured.

Runway 28Center is out of service but air traffic operations have been unaffected by the disruption, O’Hare said.

The Federal Aviation Administration is leading an investigation into the incident with support from CDA and CPD.