A United Airlines flight heading to San Francisco from Australia turned back and made an emergency landing Monday after the aircraft experienced what the carrier called a “maintenance issue.”
The Boeing 777-300 was around two hours into the almost 14-hour journey when it returned to Sydney, the airline said. The episode is just the latest in a string of high-profile incidents involving United in recent weeks that have generated unsettling headlines about planes veering off runways, losing tires, and flames belching out of engines.
Video shared online by New York Aviation purportedly of flight 830’s takeoff appears to show some kind of fluid spewing out of the plane close to its rear right landing gear. Later, as the aircraft arrives back in Sydney and is met by firefighters, smoke seems to be pouring from the same area of the jet.
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Another clip from a passenger showed the jet dumping its fuel before landing, according to KNTV.
“The plane landed safely, and passengers deplaned normally at the gate,” the airline said in a statement, according to CNN. “We provided accommodation overnight for passengers and rebooked them to San Francisco.”
The incident comes after an alarming run of recent emergencies and mishaps, some of which occurred in the past few days.
A United Boeing 737 Max 8 rolled off a runway just after landing in Houston last Friday, with passengers forced to evacuate the aircraft via air stairs. No one was injured in the incident. Another United flight made an emergency landing in Los Angeles on the same day due to an issue with the plane’s hydraulic system.
Those incidents came the day after a tire fell off a United Boeing 777 moments after takeoff from San Francisco on a flight to Japan. The rogue tire smashed into cars in an employee parking lot before coming to a stop; thankfully, no one was hurt either in the aircraft or on the ground, and the flight was diverted to Los Angeles.
Earlier in the week, other passengers filmed flames shooting out of the engine of a United Boeing 737 flight to Florida, with an airline spokesperson later explaining that bubble wrap on the airfield had been sucked into the jet. “The flight landed safely and passengers deplaned normally,” the airline said, though one witness said those on board were left “screaming and crying.”
“Each of these events is distinct and unrelated to one another,” United said in a statement Monday. “Safety is our top priority, and we’ll continue to do everything we can to keep our customers and employees safe.”
