AIR France said yesterday that it is checking all its Boeing 777 aircraft following an incident last Monday when part of a jet’s landing gear panel fell off after takeoff from Shanghai.

The French airline confirmed that flight AF111 from Shanghai to Paris on July 13 lost a removable panel shortly after takeoff from Pudong International Airport.

“The loss of this panel did not affect the aircraft’s airworthiness and no one was injured,” the airline said in a statement.

The flight continued to Paris without incident.

Air France teams, alongside teams from Boeing, are currently investigating what caused the 777’s panel to become detached and are in contact with Chinese authorities.

“It is not rare to see the problems of fragility of this part in the civil aviation industry, but it does not affect the aircraft’s flight performance and flight safety,” the airline said.

The metal panel fell from the sky around 3am on Monday and hit the patio of Fusheng Co on Minyi Road in the Xinqiao Industrial Zone in Songjiang District.

“We’ve been working real closely with our customers and have provided guidance on how to make any maintenance required,” Boeing spokesman Chris Villiers said at the weekend.

“It does not affect the structural integrity of the landing gear nor the safety of the flight.”

He said Boeing was treating the incident “with utmost concern and urgency.”

The panel is one of the parts that open and close as the landing gear deploys. Boeing has issued a service bulletin giving instructions on how to resolve the issue. The problem involves fasteners that hold the panel in place, it said.

In a statement, Boeing added: “We have implemented the change for airplanes produced in our factories.”

More than 1,100 Boeing 777 aircraft are in service with dozens of airlines around the world.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China said yesterday that it would be arranging a meeting with Air France officials. It said it would urge Air France to take measures to ensure that such an accident would not happen again.