United

[Malcolm]

 

SAN FRANCISCO - 

A United Airlines jetliner bound for Japan made a safe landing in Los Angeles on Thursday after losing a tire while taking off from San Francisco.

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Video shows the plane losing one of the six tires on its left-side main landing gear assembly seconds after takeoff. The tire landed in an employee parking lot at San Francisco International Airport, where it smashed into a car and shattered its back window before breaking through a fence and coming to stop in a neighboring lot.

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No one was injured, airport spokesman Doug Yakel said in a statement.

Fire engines stood by at Los Angeles International Airport but weren't needed, as the Boeing 777 made an uneventful landing and stopped about two-thirds of the way down a runway. Airport spokesman Dae Levine said the plane landed safely.

It was then towed away.

The flight carried 235 passengers and a crew of 14, United said. The airline said that the plane, built in 2002, was designed to land safely with missing or damaged tires. The passengers will be moved to another plane for the rest of the trip, United said.

A damaged car is seen in an on-airport employee parking lot after tire debris from a Boeing 777 landed on it at San Francisco International Airport, Thursday, March 7, 2024. (AP Photo / Haven Daley)

Boeing 777s have six tires on each of the two main landing gears. Video of Flight 35 departing shows the plane losing one of the six tires on its left-side main landing gear assembly seconds after takeoff.

Aviation experts said planes losing tires is a rare occurrence and not indicative of a larger safety issue.

“In aviation, we never want to have single points of failure if they can be avoided, and this is a case in point,” said Alan Price, a former chief pilot for Delta Air Lines.

“The remaining tires are fully capable of handling the load,” he added.

Price said a loose tire is normally a maintenance issue and not a problem created by the manufacturer.

John Cox, a retired pilot and professor of aviation safety at the University of Southern California, agreed. “I don’t see any impact for Boeing as it was a United maintenance team that changed the tire,” he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration will investigate, spokesman Tony Molinaro said.

Associated Press Airlines Writer David Koenig contributed. 

[Kip Powick]

Probably the only preflight walk-around a Captain ever did and failed to see the wheel lug nuts were loose...

[J.O.]

It could have been an axle failure - that's happened before on the 777.

[Malcolm]

United Airlines' String of Mishaps Results in Further Scrutiny

Story by Rich Thomaselli

 • 5h • 2 min read

 

 

United Airlines plane.© United Airlines Media

A recent spate of issues involving United Airlines has resulted in greater scrutiny and oversight from federal regulators.

Those issues include a piece of the outer fuselage falling off one jet, an engine fire, a plane skidding off the runway and a plane losing a tire during takeoff. All of that, in addition to other problems, happened within one week earlier this month.

 

United's vice president of corporate safety, Sasha Johnson, said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will examine "multiple areas of our operation."

"Over the next several weeks, we will begin to see more of an FAA presence in our operation as they begin to review some of our work processes, manuals and facilities," she said in a note to employees. "We welcome their engagement and are very open to hear from them about what they find and their perspective on things we may need to change to make us even safer."

United is also a big customer of airplane manufacturer Boeing, which has been under its own scrutiny and investigation from government regulators since the January 5 incident in which a door panel fell off an Alaska Airlines plane mid-flight.

The FAA said it "routinely monitors all aspects of an airline's operation."

In a statement, an agency spokesperson said FAA oversight "focuses on an airline's compliance with applicable regulations; ability to identify hazards, assess and mitigate risk; and effectively manage safety."

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said he spoke with United CEO Scott Kirby about the problems. Kirby said the issues are not a pattern and have been unrelated to each other.

 

Related video: United Airlines says federal regulators will increase oversight of the company following issues (WGN-TV Chicago)

manuals and facilities. The agency will then determine if any

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[Malcolm]

United Postpones Two International Inaugural Flights Following Safety Incidents

The airline pushed back new flights to Portugal and the Philippines.

 

United Airlines has postponed a pair of inaugural flights, citing delays by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) following a series of recent safety incidents.

The airline has delayed the start of a new route between Newark and Faro in the Algarve region of Portugal as well as between Tokyo and Cebu in the Philippines, United confirmed to Travel + Leisure. The decision was made to halt the routes following a pause on some FAA certifications. 

 

A spokesperson for United told T+L customers who were scheduled to fly on these delayed routes “can receive full refunds or we will rebook their travel on one of our partner airlines without a fee.”

The Portugal route, which United first announced last year, was set to launch on May 24 and operate four times each week on a Boeing 757-200 aircraft. At the time of the announcement, United said it would have made it the first airline to fly direct between the United States and Faro.

United told T+L it would now plan to launch that flight in the summer of 2025.

The nonstop flight between Tokyo and Cebu was set to launch July 31 with daily flights on Boeing 737-800 aircraft, United noted. That flight is now scheduled to launch on Oct. 27.

The FAA’s probe of United came on the heels of several recent mid-air and on-the-ground incidents, including an aircraft panel falling off mid-flight, an aircraft losing a wheel during takeoff, and a plane’s engine catching fire. The increased oversight also followed United’s discovery of loose bolts on its 737 MAX 9 aircraft following a mid-air blowout of a plug door panel on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 plane.

 

Related video: United Airlines CEO looks to reassure customers after plane issues (TODAY)

Meantime, back here at home, United Airlines is looking to

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Last month, United’s CEO Scott Kirby assured customers in a memo that “Safety is our highest priority and is at the center of everything we do.” 

While these routes are delayed, the airline does plan on expanding closer to home this summer, including adding new flights to national parks and outdoor destinations in Canada and introducing a new route to Anchorage, Alaska.