Gear up – flaming wheel down.

An Air Canada Express plane lost one of its wheels as it took off from Montreal, forcing the flight to return to the airport, according to CNN.

One of the passengers aboard the high-wing Dash 8-300 plane caught the frightening sight of the flame-spewing wheel coming off the left main landing gear.

“I’m currently on a plane that just lost a wheel. 2020 starting off well,” he wrote in French on Twitter as Flight 8684 took off Friday from Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport en route to Bagotville, some 23 miles to the north, with 49 passengers and three crew members aboard.

The twin-engine plane is equipped with six tires — two on the right landing gear, two on the left and two on the nose.

“The experienced pilots maintained complete control of the aircraft,” Manon Stuart, a spokeswoman for Jazz Aviation, the operator of the flight, told CNN in a statement.

“Our pilots are well trained to deal with such situations and responded according to our standard operating procedures,” she added. “Our maintenance personnel in Montreal are conducting a thorough inspection of the aircraft to determine the cause and proceed with the necessary repairs.”

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