On March 4, United Flight 1118 bound for Fort Myers, Florida, had to return to Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport after the engine burst into flames shortly after takeoff. An airline investigation later determined that the fire was caused by bubble wrap that was sucked into the engine. The sudden loss of the deactivated exit door led to rapid decompression and forced a diversion.
Older Boeing plane found to have missing panel after flight from California to southern Oregon
“We’ll conduct a thorough examination of the plane and perform all the needed repairs before it returns to service,” she said. A United Airlines jet was found to be missing an external panel after completing a scheduled flight to southern Oregon on Friday. A Boeing 737 MAX 8 in United Airlines’ fleet was recently involved in a runway excursion at Houston International Airport (IAH). A United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Oregon landed without a panel on Friday – two months after an incident which prompted investigations into Boeing’s safety and quality standards in its production process. The following day, March 8, problems with a jet’s hydraulics system forced a plane bound for Mexico City to make an emergency landing in Los Angeles. On Jan. 5, the door plug of an Alaska Airlines flight bound for Ontario, California, blew out just minutes after the Boeing 737 Max 9 had taken off from Portland, Oregon.
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A Boeing plane landed without one of its fuselage panels at an airport in the US state of Oregon on Friday, says United Airlines. On March 7, a jet lost a wheel during takeoff, with the wheel crushing one car and damaging several others in an SFO employee parking lot. Airport operations were briefly paused while a search of the runway was conducted, but “no debris on the airfield” was found, Judd added. Incidents have plagued United Airlines in the past few weeks, including several involving planes taking off from SFO — most notably United Flight 35, where a tire fell off a Boeing 777 during takeoff. While the runway surface at the time was wet, which would increase the likelihood of excursion, another United 737 MAX had recently prompted a federal investigation after the rudder pedals failed at Newark.
More Bad news for United & Boeing
However, United noted that emergency vehicles were standing by as a precaution during the landing after smoke was seen around the landing gear. “We’ll conduct a thorough examination of the plane and perform all the needed repairs before it returns to service,” the airline said. “We’ll also conduct an investigation to better understand how this damage occurred.” Amber Judd, a senior official at Rogue Valley International Medford Airport, said the plane landed safely and the external panel was only discovered missing during a post-flight inspection. United Airlines told Simple Flying that it would conduct a thorough examination of the aircraft and perform needed examinations before returning the aircraft into service. The missing panel was discovered after the aircraft parked at the gate at MFR, and United says it plans to investigate how the damage had occurred.
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The missing panel was on the underside of the aircraft where the wing meets the body and just next to the landing gear, United said. Various news outlets also reported the missing panel was only discovered after the plane arrived at its destination. The photos included in the Instagram post were taken at the scene, according to the Rogue Valley Times. The missing panel was on the underside of the plane, where the wing meets the body and just next to the landing gear, United said. Boeing faces more turbulence even though flight landed safely as it was unclear when or how the panel went missing. “We’ll conduct a thorough examination of the plane and perform all the needed repairs before it returns to service,” the spokesperson said.
Also on March 8, United Flight 2477 from Memphis to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston veered off the runway just after landing. 160 passengers and six crew members on the flight were forced to depart the plane using air stars on the open runway. The rash of incidents on United flights stretch back to March 4, with multiple United aircrafts facing problems that forced flights to return to their point of departure or make emergency landings. The airport paused operations to check the runway and airfield for debris, Judd said, and none was found. There were 174 passengers and six crew on board and some people reported minor injuries. The incident on board Alaska Airlines flight 1282 left a gaping hole in the side of the plane and forced an emergency landing.
The plane was able to safely return to Portland International Airport, and there were no serious injuries. SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — A United Airlines flight that took off from San Francisco International Airport Friday morning landed in Oregon with a missing external panel, according to officials. A United Airlines spokesperson said via email that the flight was carrying 139 passengers and six crew members, and no emergency was declared because there was no indication of the damage during the flight. However, the flight “did not make an emergency landing,” said United Airlines spokesperson Erin Jankowski.
A seemingly disproportionate number of those flights have either originated from, or been bound for, San Francisco, including three since Monday. The door plug was eventually found in the backyard of a high school physics teacher in southwest Portland, along with other debris from the flight scattered nearby. The failure of the door plug on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which involved a Boeing 737 MAX 9, has prompted several civil lawsuits, and congressional reports have suggested shortcomings in Boeing’s safety management systems. Both United Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration are continuing to investigate the matter, which came amid a wave of incidents that have sparked concern about the safety of air travel. Seven people, including passengers and crew, requested medical evaluations but no one was taken to hospital, officials said. A United Airlines spokesperson said no emergency was declared because there was no indication of the damage during the flight.
It was only during a “post-landing airline inspection” that the missing panel was discovered, the FAA said. CBS News learned the missing panel is from the underside of the aircraft, just adjacent to where the main landing gear deploys. There was no mid-flight emergency, a United spokesperson said, nor anything else to suggest that there was damage during what appeared to be a routine flight.
The images included in the Instagram post are from that flight, according to the Rogue Valley Times, a newspaper based in Medford, Oregon. At least 50 people were injured on Monday after a Boeing Dreamliner flying from Australia to New Zealand suddenly dropped without warning – with people who were not wearing seatbelts tossed from their seats and flung into the cabin ceiling and aisles. The plane in question made its first flight in April 1998 and United Airlines has operated it since November 2011.
The incident comes on the heels of a handful mishaps with United flights in the last few weeks. The older “Next Generation” 737 was first delivered to Continental Airlines in 1998, according to Airfleets.net, and became part of United’s fleet when the two airlines merged in 2012. The airline has not revealed details of the financing or the number of aircraft ordered. The airline did a “thorough examination” of the aircraft and made the necessary repairs before it was used again, Jankowski said.
Condor’s new Airbus A330neo was damaged by a loading vehicle less than one month into service. United, seemingly out of frustration with ever-mounting certification delays, has told Boeing to stop manufacturing 737 MAX 10s for the airline, instead focusing on the 737 MAX 9. A recent earnings report from the airline suggested that it would not receive any MAX 10s until after 2025. USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and transparency. A day later, a United Airlines-operated Boeing 737 Max rolled onto the grass and off the runway in Houston.
The plane “landed safely at its scheduled destination” in Medford, at which point the discovery was made, Jankowski said. A March 15 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) includes images of a passenger airplane that appears to be damaged. About 50 people were injured on the plane that was flying to New Zealand from Australia.
On Friday, Boeing told airlines to inspect switches on pilots’ seats in its 787 Dreamliner jets after a published report said an accidental cockpit seat movement likely caused the sudden plunge of a Latam Airlines plane last Monday. US regulators immediately launched investigations into the company’s safety and quality standards in its production process. The FAA grounded Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners, affecting 171 planes worldwide and said it had identified “non-compliance issues in Boeing’s manufacturing process control, parts handling and storage, and product control” following an audit of the company. Friday’s incident is the latest in a series of problems for Boeing, which has resulted in investigations into the company’s safety and quality standards in its production process. United has maintained that the rash of safety incidents were unrelated, with aviation experts backing up the airline’s statement. This marks the latest United flight to report an issue amid a series of recent problems for travelers on the airline.
Boeing is involved in several investigations, one of which is criminal after the failure of a door plug on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 forced that aircraft to return to Portland, Oregon (PDX). “JUST IN – United Airlines Boeing 737 from San Francisco makes emergency landing in Medford, Oregon due to lost aircraft panels mid-flight,” reads the post’s caption. Boeing has come under intense scrutiny since January when a panel that plugged a space left for an extra emergency door blew out midair on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 flight shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon. Medford airport paused operations to check the runway and airfield for debris but none was found, according to the facility’s director, Amber Judd. The airport paused operations to check the runway and airfield for debris but none was found.
On Monday, another United flight bound for San Francisco from Australia had a “maintenance issue” and was forced to return to Sydney. “It’s not only safe to fly, it’s so much safer to fly than it is to even drive to the airport, and that’s not just statistically true. That is true,” Nance said. “I don’t think we had any real danger here in the air. We had danger of anybody who something might fall on that came off an aircraft. That’s always a big concern. It’s a big concern for the FAA as well as all of us,” Nance said. “Well, having things fall off jetliners is not our favorite methodology. It is, in any form or fashion, rare and troublesome,” said John Nance, ABC News aviation analyst. “Did somebody fail to close something — which would have been a human factor. Was it fatigue? Or do we have a situation here that somehow had maintenance. Those questions all have to be answered.”
- United Airlines told Simple Flying that it would conduct a thorough examination of the aircraft and perform needed examinations before returning the aircraft into service.
- United has maintained that the rash of safety incidents were unrelated, with aviation experts backing up the airline’s statement.
- United Flight 433 from San Francisco International Airport to Rogue Valley International Medford Airport landed safely as scheduled in Medford, the Federal Aviation Administration reported.
- Condor’s new Airbus A330neo was damaged by a loading vehicle less than one month into service.
United says it will “thoroughly examine the plane and perform repairs and conduct an investigation to know how the damage occurred.” Judd said she believed the United ground crew or pilots doing a routine inspection before the next flight were the ones who noticed the missing panel. United Airlines confirmed to Simple Flying that 139 passengers and six crew members were onboard Flight 433 today. The aircraft did not declare an emergency during its flight and operated normally without indicating damage to the aircraft.