The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications has started an investigation into the incident.

The incident caused no damage or injury, posed no risk of a crash and thereby falls under the jurisdiction of the CAA rather than the Aviation Safety Council (ASC) because it was not being regarded as an “aviation occurrence,” according to an ASC official.

CAA chief Chang Kuo-cheng said that while the Fokker 100’s nose undercarriage usually has two tires to share the weight, it was able to land safely with only one tire on its nose, probably because it was not fully loaded.

The plane, which has a capacity of 108 passengers, was carrying only 53 for the flight to Kinmen, Chang added.

Noting that the lost tire was replaced Dec. 25, Chang said his office will look into the airplane’s maintenance record.

The plane, which was found to have a missing tire only after it arrived on Kinmen, had the tire replaced and flew back to Taipei later in the day.

The missing tire was later found on the runway of the Songshan Airport in Taipei from where the plane departed earlier in the morning.

Mandarin Airlines executives have temporarily suspended the maintenance staff on duly handling the Dec. 25 tire replacement pending further investigations.

They also decided to conduct an inspection of all Fokker 100 jets.

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