Summary
- Missing panel on United Airlines 737-800 prompts thorough examination before return to service.
- Flight 433 from SFO to MFR had 139 passengers and 6 crew members onboard with no declared emergency.
- United Airlines and Boeing face negative headlines with recent incidents, including a MAX 8 runway tour and 737-900 engine fire.
After landing on schedule at Oregon’s Medford Rogue Valley International Airport (MFR), a missing panel was discovered on a United Airlines 737-800. The aircraft had just flown 53 minutes from San Francisco International Airport (SFO).
United Airlines told Easy Flying that it will conduct an intensive examination of the aircraft and perform needed examinations before returning the aircraft into service. The missing panel was discovered after the aircraft had parked on the gate at MFR, and United says that it plans an investigation to know how the damage had occurred.
The aircraft involved was a 25-year-old 737-800 that was originally delivered to Continental Airlines in 1998. The flight between SFO and MFR was UA433, a once-daily service connecting the 2 airports.
The flight
United Airlines confirmed to Easy Flying that today, 139 passengers and 6 crew members were onboard Flight 433. The aircraft didn’t declare an emergency during its flight and operated normally without indicating damage to the aircraft.
Photos published on social media indicated that the panel missing was directly aft of the port side principal landing gear. The missing panel revealed hydraulic housing related to the landing gear actuation. It’s unclear if there was any damage to the landing gear of the aircraft.
Flight 433, for its part, had departed SFO at 10:39 am local time, arriving in MFR at 11:32. The aircraft had reached an altitude of 30,000 ft throughout the short flight.
More Bad news for United & Boeing
The news was more negative headlines for each United Airlines and planemaker Boeing, involving each SFO and Oregon. Boeing itself is involved in several investigations, certainly 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).
The failure of the door plug on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, which involved a Boeing 737 MAX 9, has prompted quite a few civil lawsuits, and congressional reports have suggested shortcomings in Boeing’s safety management systems.
A Boeing 737 MAX 8 in United Airlines’ fleet was recently involved in a runway tour at Houston International Airport (IAH). That aircraft had slid off the taxiway when exiting the runway after landing. An investigation remains to be underway for that incident.
Photo: Flightradar24.com
While the runway surface on the time was wet, which might increase the likelihood of tour, one other United 737 MAX had recently prompted a federal investigation after the failure of rudder pedals at Newark. It stays unclear what caused each incidents.
United, seemingly out of frustration with ever-mounting certification delays, has told Boeing to stop manufacturing 737 MAX 10s for the airline, as an alternative specializing in the 737 MAX 9. A recent earnings report from the airline suggested that it will not receive any MAX 10s after 2025.
Days later, a United Airlines 737-900 could be forced to return to IAH after a fireplace aboard certainly one of that aircraft’s engines. United has also faced aircraft difficulties at SFO when a wheel fell off of certainly one of the airline’s 777-300ERs because it departed for Sydney (SYD).