A terrified airline passenger filmed the moment a wheel came off the plane she was in as it was gunning down a runway.

The Air Canada Express was picking up speed ready for takeoff when a wheel began sparking and then fired off along the tarmac.

Flight 8684 was carrying 49 passengers from Montreal-Trudeau International Airport but luckily no-one was injured as pilots managed to abort takeoff on Friday.

The passenger posted the five-second clip to Twitter and by then was able to see the funny side, reports CNN .

"I'm currently on a plane that just lost a wheel. 2020 starting off well," said 'Tom', whose handle is @caf_tom and bio says he's from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France.

The Air Canada Express was picking up speed ready for takeoff when a wheel began sparking and then fired off along the tarmac

An investigation has now been launched to understand what went wrong with the Dash 8-300 plane.

The flight was due to fly 230 miles north to Bagotville when the wheel shot off the craft's left main landing gear.

Manon Stuart, a spokesperson for Jazz Aviation, the flight operator, said the pilots "responded according to our standard operating procedures" during the incident.

She said: "Pilots were able to turn the Dash 8-300 around and land safely.

"The experienced pilots maintained complete control of the aircraft," Manon Stuart, a spokesperson for Jazz Aviation, the operator of the flight, said in a statement.

An investigation has now been launched to understand what went wrong with the Dash 8-300 plane

"Our pilots are well trained to deal with such situations and responded according to our standard operating procedures.

"Emergency vehicles were called "as a precautionary measure.

"Our maintenance personnel in Montreal are conducting a thorough inspection of the aircraft to determine the cause and proceed with the necessary repairs," she added.

Tom's tweet, which was posted on the day of the incident, currently has more than 1,000 likes.

One commenter, using the handle @ConradBros, said: "Dry wheel bearings don't work very well."

@z_onichi said it was lucky the wheel came off before takeoff because "imagine a wheel of that size just falling out of the sky out of the blue".