Nobody was hurt in Saturday's incident on a Sydney-bound plane which was taxiing towards the runway at Melbourne airport, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said.

"The axle between the two wheels has fractured and that's caused the right front wheel to separate," a bureau spokesman said. "I understand that as a precaution Virgin Blue has inspected their fleet."

The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association said the incident, which is being probed by safety investigators, could have been catastrophic.

"In this case, we were lucky that the failure occurred on the ground. The release of the wheel assembly in-flight could have seen a loss of aircraft," association secretary Steve Purvinashe said.

"Unless action is taken, future incidences could be much more serious."

Virgin Blue chief executive Brett Godfrey said the company's inspections had uncovered no problems. The airline has 53 Boeing 737 and Embraer planes, according to its website.

Godfrey described the weekend incident as an "anomaly", saying the wheel problem had been reported less than half a dozen times on the 4000 737s flying globally.

"There was no corrosion, no cracks, no fatigue on those," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"So to us at this early stage... we think it's an anomaly, but it's certainly not anything to do with our maintenance."

AFP