United’s HARD Landing vs. Endeavor Toronto Crash!

A United Airlines Airbus A321 lost a nose wheel during a hard landing at Orlando International Airport — and the video quickly spread online. But viral clips don’t tell you how close something actually was to becoming catastrophic, or why it didn’t.

In this episode of TakingOff, Dan Millican breaks down United Flight 2323’s January 18, 2026 landing and compares it to the Endeavor CRJ-900 crash last year — an accident that involved a wing separation, fire, and a dramatic slide, yet resulted in every passenger surviving.

We examine:
-the weather conditions and rapidly changing wind environment at Orlando
-how crosswinds, gusts, and runway alignment affect landing dynamics
-why main landing gear and nose gear are designed very differently
-how vertical speed, bounce, and side loads interact during touchdown
-what “mechanical failure” really means in early airline statements
-and why video alone can’t explain structural loads or failure modes

This is not about assigning blame. It’s about understanding forces, design intent, pilot decision-making, and why aviation safety depends on systems that prevent one failure from cascading into something far worse.

As more verified information becomes available, we’ll continue to update and follow this incident.

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