Commuter carrier Colgan Air is quickly becoming the airline from hell.
Exactly three months after a Colgan puddle-jumper crashed outside Buffalo, killing 50 people, a plane of the same model flying the same route narrowly avoided a catastrophe after losing a wheel upon landing, a shocking video shot by a passenger shows.
CO-PILOT’S GRIEVING KIN INSIST: ‘REBECCA WAS A PRO’
At the moment of touchdown Tuesday, the inside tire on the left wing can be seen popping off its axle. Moments later, the wheel’s bearings also come loose and fly into nearby grass as the plane grinds to a halt on the 10,000-foot runway.
After Flight 3286 finally stopped, the oblivious pilot continued to taxi the hobbled aircraft toward the terminal and stopped a mere 40 feet from the gate before reporting brake trouble, Federal Aviation Administration authorities said.
The ground crew, however, saw the landing gear breaking up and notified the tower.
“I was scared and the other passengers looked worried, too,” the passenger who took the video told the Toronto Sun.
He said he saw the wheel machinery engulfed in flames when the plane took off from Newark Airport.
“Quite a few passengers saw the flames on takeoff,” he said.
Brian McNamara of Brooklyn, who was on the frightful flight from Newark to Buffalo, told The Post he had “never seen anything like that.”
“Usually I’m not afraid of flying on airlines. Now I’m not sure if I’ll be flying with this airline anymore,” he said.
McNamara said the airline needs to take a “hard look” at how it does business. “I’m definitely suspicious of their ability to safely transport passengers,” he said.
Colgan nevertheless plans to get the plane back in service as soon as possible — even though that same wheel had been worked on just a month ago.
“The bearing was relatively new, having been on the aircraft for just five weeks,” airline spokesman Joe Williams said in a statement.
“The aircraft has been repaired and flown to a maintenance base for a final inspection before being returned to revenue service.”
Radio transmissions reveal that officials were slow to pinpoint Flight 3286’s troubles before a search was ordered for the stray tire and pieces of axle.
“3286, problem with the tire,” the pilot told air-traffic control.
“Yeah, there’s a ques tion as to whether you may have lost a tire. Are you getting any indication of that?” the tower replied.
That sent workers into a three-hour scramble, shutting down the runway while they searched for pieces of the wheel bearings and the tire, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said.
They feared the loose metal parts could be sucked into the engine of another plane and cause a crash, Peters said.
Members of a Flying Tiger cargo crew found the tire in a patch of grass.
The ground crew spotted the wheel flying off its axle the moment the plane landed, Peters said.
“The airport called air traffic control and observed that a tire was rolling away from the aircraft as it touched down,” he said.
None of the 73 passengers was hurt.
The near-disaster happened on the first day of a federal hearing into Colgan to determine how Capt. Marvin Renslow and First Officer Rebecca Shaw lost control of Flight 3407 before it crashed in suburban Buffalo on Feb. 12.
The National Transportation Safety Board hearing in Washington revealed that Colgan paid its pilots peanuts and allowed the duo to fly fatigued.
Tuesday’s scare involved the same type of plane, a Dash 8, and flew the same Newark-to-Buffalo route as Flight 3407.