Last week was simply horrible for United Airlines, with multiple mechanical issues that raised questions about the carrier and its maintenance and also raised safety concerns about Boeing. Today, another incident occurred, this time involving a diversion of a Boeing 777-300ER in Sydney, Australia.
United Airlines 777-3ooER Diversion To Sydney
Earlier today, United 830 took off from Sydney, Australia (SYD) at 12:01 pm local time, nine minutes early. The flight was operated by a Boeing 777-300ER jet. But by 2:34 pm local time, the aircraft had landed again in Sydney.
United gave this official reason for the delay:
Your flight is canceled because we needed to take the plane out of service to address a technical issue. Your safety is our priority and we’re sorry for the inconvenience.
Video shows the 777 landing at SYD with the main landing gear doors open (wheels down, but doors of main landing gear not closed).
Based on FlightAware data, it appears the flight reached 500 knots and 30,000 feet before turning around. Does that mean the doors opened during the flight?
Flying Is Very Safe, But This Is Still A Bad Look For United Airlines And Boeing
In a time of heightened tensions over quality control, any mechanical issue is likely to raise additional scrutiny. These sorts of things happen all the time and do not change my overall assessment that flying is very safe, Boeing aircraft are well built, and United’s maintenance team is among the best in the business.
I would happily get on any Boeing or United jet with my wife and kids and not worry…
Nevertheless, this is undeniably a bad look for United and Boeing. First, the media will have a field day with this. Second, landing gear doors should not be popping open…what caused this to happen in the first place? It’s a reasonable question. Third, all the recent events, each one small and likely discrete, merge to form a systemic problem…or at least the perception of one.
If I’m United CEO Scott Kirby, I’m coming out and addressing this matter head-on. Today. Maintenance issues happen and will continue to happen. That’s the nature of airplanes. Yet customers and investors are starting to get rattled and need some words of assurance that United is taking these matters very seriously.
CONCLUSION
A United 777-300ER diverted to Sydney today after a mechanical issue after takeoff. The precise nature of the problem has not been revealed, but video shows the aircraft landing with the main landing gear doors wide open.
Flying is safe, repeat: flying is safe. That doen’t change the act that these optics are not good for United and Boeing. It’s time for United to candidly address that it not only takes every issue seriously but finds them unacceptable.
screen grabs: New York Aviation / YouTube
I was a flight attendant for United for over 20 years. Mechanicals and diversions have been happening all of the time. The difference now is that mass media has easier access to these events. Journalists today seem too pleased to report (and sensationalize) these events.
@John … +1 . Also , powered flight must always overcome gravity , drag , wind , and weather .
Are these United DEI related or Boeing incompetence related?
What a racist statement to make. And you wonder why no one likes you?
I like him
I guess reality is racist then.
A United 767 was destroyed because a DEI hire damaged it.
The majority support my opinions.
So we are saying there is no management, training or oversight for these hires?
I’m sure there is training and managerial oversight but there are underlying issues, and this isn’t just a United thing, it’s all of these companies pushing a DEI agenda. While I’m pro-diversity in the workforce I believe that giving ‘target’ numbers of diverse employees is a truly bad look and that’s what United and a lot of these companies are doing.
One issue is many of these CEO and C-Suite types are chasing CEl scores and the bonuses associated with meeting their DEI targets. Shouldn’t that give everyone a moment of pause to ask if forced DEl is a good thing.
Another issue is, you have these target statements out there, you have these facts regarding compensation for meeting targets and now you have all of these issues arising that are making splashy headlines. Of course a lot of people are going to use DEl as the root cause when it is more likely employees under time crunches rushing their work, hostile management types trying to meet goals set by an even more hostile executive team. | TL;DR End of the day these companies helped create this narrative in the quest for profits, arbitrary scores, and personal gain.
I like him as well. Telling the truth ist or ism to those afraid of the truth.
It’s not racist. It’s basic status. United started focusing on hiring based on race and color of skin instead of skillet and capability (look up their DEI initiatives) and now we have issues everywhere. Your racist for wanting to act like they don’t hire unqualified people due to race.
Classic LALF comment section
Blaming all of UA’s mishaps on DEI truly brings us to a new golden age of UA shitposting and I’m here for it.
Oh yeah
Idiotic comment.
Why it’s true?
United ran one off the runway in Houston because of DEI.
You don’t DEI has damaged other parts of United including mx?
The quality goes down because finance guys took over for the engineers and now the finance guys are blaming DEI. Worse, we have people that believe them.
Based on the past few years, it’s getting harder to believe that “Boeing aircraft are well built” (strong arguments to suggest the opposite is true with some aircraft types), and based on the past few weeks, it’s also getting harder to believe that “United’s maintenance team is among the best in the business”.
Give United a break. They have probably 1000 aircraft which is one of the largest fleets in the world and mostly Boeing aircraft, maybe 90% They run close to 5,000 flights per day. They probably have some kind of “incident” every day. And it will most likely be a Boeing plane.
Why should we “give United a break”? Last I checked no other airline (including those with larger fleets) was facing this many issues all at once. Asking questions of the airline seems sensible.
It always amazed me how so many individuals spring to the defence of corporations who, frankly, couldn’t care less if those individuals live or die (as long as they don’t die on their watch). It’s like a version of Stockholm Syndrome.
Are you serious Matt? This is a bad look for United and Boeing? I guessing it was a bad look for Airbus when just 3 days ago a United A320 made an emergency landing with its landing gear doors open at LAX.
When there is a hydraulic issue or even an hydraulic failure the main gear doors do not close especially if the pilots use the free-fall also known as gravity drop system to lower the gear. There are plenty of incidents on both Airbus and Boeing aircraft of airplanes landing with main gear doors open.
The pilots noticed a hydraulic issues and turned the aircraft around and no the doors didn’t pop open at 30,00 feet while traveling at 500 knots. The gear doors are fairly thin pieces of aluminum if the doors had opened while the aircraft was traveling at 500 knots they certainly would have been damaged if not completely ripped off the aircraft.
Same issue as on Friday, a United A 320 from SFO to MEX had landing gear doors that wouldn’t close and had to divert to LAX, can be seen on YouTube with same fire dept inspection, and then was towed to gate.
This stuff is blown out of proportion by the media. Stuff happens all the time. I was on a plane that had to make an emergency landing in the 80s for a hydraulic issue. I am sure it didn’t make the news.
Every little incident is now mentioned by the morons in the media to hype things up.
Landing gear doors not closing has happened to me a few times while flying. In all the cases it occurred for me you notice it right away after the gear is raised that there is a vibration and an odd sound that stays. It can’t be a serious issue at all as when it happened the pilots would announce what the noise was and that they were working on troubleshooting trying to get the doors to close. Which I’m sure is what occurred on the UA flight. As well they would need to burn off fuel. Seems a pretty routine situation.
Koggerj is so flexible he can lick his own hairy balls
Why do project you sexual deviancy on others?
Just end your life already and the world will be .00001% better
Signed, non-bigoted LALF readers
Get cancer.
The landing gear doors being open means that it was an ‘alternate’ gear extension. Almost certainly the result of a hydraulic system failure.
Why do you need to drag the Boeing name into it? Why don’t you report the number of Airbus flights that get cancelled or return back to the departure airport? It happens as much as it happens for boeing!
Boeing is rightfully under a lot of scrutiny due to numerous quality issues.
I’m concerned as much about post-covid lack of experience with mechanics and pilots for the industry. We lost a lot of veterans of the airline industry in the past 3-4 years.
Matt may not have noticed this news item:
“Boeing whistleblower John Barnett found dead in US”