Captain reports a passenger notified their flight attendant he saw a wheel flying by from underneath...

Narrative:

Aircraft damage and nose wheel equipment malfunction. Since it was not the ATR-72's first flight of the day; first officer performed a general aircraft inspection (as per aircraft operations manual aom). We departed with me [captain] flying the outbound leg. We landed on the wet runway smoothly. At the middle of the landing roll out I felt the aircraft briefly trying to steer left. We slowed down normally with some reverse and brake action. Not feeling anything unusual with the aircraft; we taxied out to the nearby parking spot from the runway exit. At that point the flight attendant called us saying a passenger was reporting seeing a wheel flying by from underneath of the aircraft. Almost at the near parking spot area; I went ahead and stopped the ATR-72 and waited for ramp personnel (rampers) to approach. They confirmed we were actually missing one of the nose wheels. The port authority found the nose wheel lying on the taxiway.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Captain reports a passenger notified their Flight Attendant he saw a wheel flying by from underneath their aircraft after the ATR-72 had landed. Ramp personnel confirmed they were missing one of the nose wheels.

Narrative: Aircraft damage and nose wheel equipment malfunction. Since it was not the ATR-72's first flight of the day; First Officer performed a General aircraft inspection (as per Aircraft Operations Manual AOM). We departed with me [Captain] flying the outbound leg. We landed on the wet runway smoothly. At the middle of the landing roll out I felt the aircraft briefly trying to steer left. We slowed down normally with some reverse and brake action. Not feeling anything unusual with the aircraft; we taxied out to the nearby parking spot from the runway exit. At that point the Flight Attendant called us saying a passenger was reporting seeing a wheel flying by from underneath of the aircraft. Almost at the near parking spot area; I went ahead and stopped the ATR-72 and waited for Ramp Personnel (Rampers) to approach. They confirmed we were actually missing one of the nose wheels. The Port Authority found the nose wheel lying on the taxiway.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	916981
Time
Date	201010
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	ATR 72
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Landing
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Nose Gear Wheel
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe

Captain reports a passenger notified their flight attendant he saw a wheel flying by from underneath their aircraft after the ATR-72 had landed. Ramp personnel confirmed they were missing one of the nose wheels.