Aviation investigators are starting the slow process of determining how a wheel fell from a plane and crashed through the roof af a home in St. Laurent.
Edward McKeogh who has 60 years of experience as a pilot and consultant, said the plan for the Transportation Safety Board will start with confiscating the maintenance manuals for the plane.
"Usually when something like this happens, it happens not too long after a check of some kind and somebody does something wrong," said McKeogh.
At 2 a.m. Wedesday residents of the building were awoken by a thud, but only realised three hours later when the upstairs tenant came home that there was a hole in the roof where the wheel had fallen from the sky.
Officials with the Transportation Safety Board confirmed that a Falcon 10 jet operated by Club Jet Charter Jet Services out of Minnesota had lost the wheel.
TSB investigator Denis Deroy says the bolt and nut that lock the wheel into place are missing.
McKeogh said he had never seen such a thing in his career, but said mistakes generally happen soon after an item is examined by mechanics.
"I'm not saying that that's the case but it can be reassembled, taken off, bearings checked, lubricated and it could have been reassembled wrong. It doesn't take much," he said.
A similar incident happened in 2010 when a wheel fell off a Falcon 10 jet in Minnesota during takeoff. McKeogh said that type of incident is more common, that the wheel “separates company” with the aircraft on takeoff and the wheel is left on the runway, he said.
Club Jet says it's cooperating with investigators in the case. According to the TSB, the company's maintenance record is good and its private jets are generally very well maintained.
Canadian investigators consider the case high priority and have looped-in their American counterparts at the National Transportation Safety Board. But depending on their findings, there may not be enough to issue recommendations.
