A United Airlines 767-300 will likely never fly again after a rough landing in Houston that caused structural damage. What happened and who is to blame?
Rough Landing Of United Airlines 767-300 In Houston Removes Aircraft From Service
The rough landing occurred on July 29, 2023 onboard a 32-year-old Boeing 767-300, registration N641UA, operating as UA702 on a flight from Newark (EWR) to Houston (IAH). The landing on runway 26L was so hard that wrinkles and tears in the fuselage were found when the plane reached the gate. The weather was clear. One passenger claimed a small hole opened at the top of the fuselage with sunlight streaming through:
some deets:https://t.co/SgFUcGUW5M
“6441 is wrinkled from where the “T” in the “United” is painted near FWD cargo door fuselage all the way around to the other “T” and there was enough force that panels came off upon impact. There was even a small hole at the top of the…
— 🇺🇦 JonNYC 🇺🇦 (@xJonNYC) July 31, 2023
There is so much speculating we can do here, both about what caused this and who did it. The following forums are rife with theories:
It is United’s policy to scrub internal flight info when an indent like this occurs. But with a little digging, that info is still discoverable. One self-identified United pilot has claimed, “The working captain was an LCP [line check pilot] (UA speak for Check Airman), the FO [first officer] was was a new hire on an OE [operating experience] leg. It’s rumored that the FO was a former FA [flight attendant] prior to being hired as a pilot at United.”
But another source has disputed that.
Consequently, I won’t speculate further now and of course we will never get any answers from United (and as customers, I suppose we are not entitled to that info, though I think shareholders would be if it does indeed show a deficiency in United’s training model that resulted in a multi-million-dollar hull loss).
It’s sad that incidents like this lead to one side automatically blaming “DEI” new hires and extrapolating that pilot diversity is a bad thing, which causes the other sides to pushback and say it was more likely a “drunk” old white man.
(check the discussion links above if you think I am exaggerating).
The point is, multiple sources (beyond just the forum comments) suggest a hull loss (scrapping) of this aircraft. That’s quite a shame considering the 767s have recently been retrofitted in business and premium economy class and with 2-3-2 seating offer some of the most comfortable economy class seating in the mainline fleet.
But the silver lining here is that despite the hard landing, no one was injured.
Even so, it is appropriate to question what happened and if this does show some sort of deficiency in training, it is essential that United makes corrections immediately – its full schedules means it does not have 767s to spare. The practical results of this hull loss may be weeks of cancelled flights or equipment downgrades.
CONCLUSION
It is difficult to resist our tendency to speculate and make assumptions about what happened here. But at this point, the only thing we know for sure is that a United 767-300 suffered a very hard landing that will likely lead to the aircraft’s premature retirement.
I do not think it is particularly helpful to make any sweeping declarations about the state of United’s pilot hiring or training programs, but I do think this is an issue we must watch closely for any patterns to emerge. I am thankful no one was injured.
image: Reddit
DEI chickens coming home to roost.
Thank God no old white guys have ever had a hard landing, much less ever crashed a plane
“I wish my pilot or surgeon was a DEI hire” says no one.
It’s hard to fly a plane while wearing a bedsheet. How do you do it while driving a car, John L?
If you look at stats the majority of incidents in the last 15 years werent white men.
I think the wrinkle is from the “I”, not “T”
Agreed. unless they spell it Untied. . .then it’s the “T” LOL
And Untied would not be too far off from what United offer lol.
People get carried away with their comments, but gosh it sure is easy to poke fun at United when you hear this was a “new hire” flying for the airline who blatantly has said they are prioritizing hiring new pilots based on their race, gender and skin color.
The problems with DEI include that it casts doubt on the ability of Black people despite some Black people having superior qualifications and would have done well on their own merit. It also creates new victims but DEI is based on trying to even out scores and past harm on other people with no regard of the present harm. Under DEI, Omaha or Orlando should be bombed with an atomic bomb in order to have equity for the 2 atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Also bomb a major Japanese naval base for Pearl Harbor. Who cares that the people of Omaha or Orlando are the new victims.
DEI is not about punishing the “other”. It’s about aiding those that have suffered/are suffering from past and current issues. In your analogy, it would be like giving assistance to Japan due to the hardship caused by the bombs, or aiding Pearl Harbor residents while they recover from the disaster – not equalizing out the pain. If there were truly no existing racism or suppression of minorities, then DEI wouldn’t be necessary. However, that is far from the current reality.
Today’s winner of the silliest hyperbolic analogy is derek. Fairness in hiring = killing hundreds of thousand of people
Dei is the opposite of fair.
If the plane had landed and the passengers were showered with flowers and refunds then your analogy would stand. However, the reality here is that this plane landed and was a hair away from being a burning mass screeching down the runway with the passengers all dead because, dammit, history wasn’t fair to someone’s ethnicity, religion, gender, or whatever, so we force fit someone into a postion they weren’t qualified for ….and the innocent passengers would have paid for an ill they had no part of. That’s the point of the prior analogy. Every race, religion, gender, etc has some form of abuse from another. DEI focuses on “righting wrongs of ONLY AMERICA’S past” (very little has to do with the present). This is foolish and, as we see in this instance, dangerous. Can you imagine how that pilot would have felt if injury had happened to any of those passengers because they crashed it? Merit over DEI is what must be adhered to when safety is at hand. This was an unacceptable outcome and I’m sure the airline is re-thinking their DEI policy now. Both DEI and safety can be acheived. It takes time and those pushing the DEI narrative want instant results. 200 dead passengers on a runway will be your results next time.
I wonder if United will try, for any flight downstream that was impacted by this, to spin the delay/cancellation as weather-related. Like…the landing was so bad because of weather? Right? LOL 🙂
Didn’t United just put into place diversity and equity for hiring new pilots? Meet those quotas. Who cares about qualifications.
I flew into Houston Sunday from Cincinnati and our plane blew 2 tires on the landing. It was a hard landing. We definitely bounced. I’ve flown hundreds of times and never blown a tire. On my flight home, the lady next to me tells me that the same thing happened to her flight into Houston last Thursday. It was certainly not a diversity issue on my plane, but you have to wonder what is going on in Houston? The airport is just too busy to be safe.
Any landing you walk away from is a good landing .
Why isn’t anyone checking if the aircraft hull had fatigue and shouldn’t have been flying anyways. The landing gear didn’t buckle under the weight of the aircraft. Plane hulls absorb shock well unless they have lost their integrity
So the plane is 32 years old. I am certain that there was already airframe fatigue. If the landing gear didn’t collapse upon landing then it is obvious there are other issues. 32 years is too long for an aircraft with that kind of duty. It should have been retired long ago.
retoriftted
Really? Don’t people spellcheck?
Know.
Your going to have to explain this to me. 🙂
Uh, is there more of a fleet issue here? 32-year old plane cracks on landing, no passenger injuries. Structural check-up anyone, please?
So what was the LCP doing the whole time?
Airliners have data recorders. They know if it was a structural failure or pilot error caused a structural failure. United isn’t saying.
Those who know are not talking. Those who are talking don’t know.
So often the case.
A new hire flying a widebody? That sounds suspect. Wouldn’t they be on a 737 or A320
We flew into IAH from Atlanta on 7/29 around 6pm and it was one of the hardest landings I have experienced in some time.
Not sure whether the atmospheric conditions played a part – it was pretty bumpy on the approach.
This is a non event. Could have been any airline, aircraft type, or demographic in the front. There have been many hull loses and lives lost over the years in the process of training flight crews. Simulators have enabled airlines to conduct nearly all of the training process in a safe and controlled environment, but eventually a person has to do the real thing.
Nobody was hurt, the cost of the event can be attributed to training expenses.
Literally got crack thank god no one get hurts. the old one need servies.
Just wondering if the hard landing could have been from the structural damage, which may have caused added turbulence. Maybe the landing didn’t damage the hull.
Wow, a whole lot of really speculation about DEI without any evidence or objective facts; talk about bias!
How about we just assume nothing until the inquiry is completed and leave the toxic comments to politics and comments about Twitter/X?
What we DO know is that an old plane had a hard landing, and no one was hurt. Move along, nothing to see here until there is.
Unlike the completely unhinged WineCountryUA whatever mod on the UA forum, we are fortunately lucky enough Matt lets people talk here.
That’s a topic for another day, by the way. Take a look at any old FT thread and see how many people are banned. It’s *insane*.
The best part is grifter-Randy coming in to criticize moderators for not being harsh enough in the External Resources forum … thus breaking a rule he himself set up to favor those kissing up to him.
Classic boomer. Didn’t really do anything, rode the wave of others’ contributions, took the money and preached to everyone else.
Good. Riddance.
Hard landings happen. It didn’t occur to me, at first, to blame the pilots, but rather weather (last-minute downdraft). But I’m more concerned about the plane (aging 767) and the damage: are structural checks on the 767s of a certain age warranted?
I would like to ask the person about seeing a small hole in the top of the fuselage. I find that hard to believe. Being an assembler at Boeing for 23 years there is a large area above the cabin ceiling that contains wiring harnesses, air condition ducts. Hydraulic lines and a lot of other items. Unless the ceiling came apart this party is full of it.
This was not a hull loss and this aircraft has been repaired and has been back in revenue service since April.