I don’t know what exactly happened here, but this doesn’t look good…
United’s rough landing leads to Orlando ground stop
This incident happened today, Sunday, January 18, 2026, and involves United Airlines flight UA2323. Specifically, the flight was operating from Chicago (ORD) to Orlando (MCO) with a two-year-old Airbus A321neo with the registration code N14502.
The 2hr19min flight was routine until the landing, and I think the video shared by JonNYC tells you everything you need to know.
The weather conditions seemingly weren’t great, and the plane had a completely botched landing, which caused one of the nose wheels to separate from the aircraft.
Based on the video footage, the landing initially looks relatively standard, with the left rear wheels touching down before the right rear wheels. However, the plane then bounces violently to the right, as the left rear wheels go back into the air, and then the forward wheels touch down. One of the forward wheels eventually just separated from the aircraft, and the plane came to a stop on the runway.
This caused the airport to have a ground stop, as all operations had to be halted. Obviously this is a peak travel period in Orlando, so it’s not the ideal time for something like this to happen. As you’d expect, the plane was taken out of service, and won’t be flying for quite some time…
Unrelated, but who are the pilots who are filming the video? While I appreciate their commentary (sort of), so much for not using phones for non-essential tasks during critical phases of flight. Or I guess in retrospect, maybe this did turn out to be “critical,” in terms of proving useful to investigators. Heh.
I wonder what exactly went wrong here
Winds were gusty at the time of this incident, but that doesn’t fully explain why something like this would happen. As mentioned above, the landing doesn’t look that unusual at first, but then a lot of weight is put on the rear right gear, and then the forward gear touches down before the rear left gear. So at that point, it’s not surprising that a wheel separated from the aircraft.
It’s sort of the opposite of the 2024 incident United had, where a Boeing 777 lost a wheel after taking off from San Francisco (SFO). In that case, it seemed to be more of a maintenance issue, rather than anything to do with the flying of the aircraft, or the weather conditions.
I am curious to see how long it takes United to repair this Airbus A321neo. Is it just as simple as replacing the wheel, or was there possibly some structural damage?
Bottom line
A United Airlines Airbus A321neo had a mighty rough landing in Orlando, which caused the plane to lose a wheel. While we know it was windy at the time of the incident, that doesn’t fully explain what happened. Fortunately no one was hurt and the plane came to a stop safely, but it did cause a ground stop, leading to operational issues.
What do you make of this A321neo landing in Orlando?
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