EGN NEWS DESK
A United Airlines flight that took off on Friday morning from San Francisco International Airport landed in Oregon lacking an exterior panel, the Federal Aviation Administration mentioned.
The panel was discovered to be lacking after the aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, landed safely at its scheduled vacation spot at Rogue Valley International Medford Airport in Oregon and parked at a gate, United Airlines mentioned in a press release. It was unclear when or how the panel went lacking.
According to the airline, there was no indication of any harm to the aircraft throughout the flight, and the plane didn’t declare an emergency on its technique to the Medford airport.
“We’ll conduct a radical examination of the aircraft and carry out all of the wanted repairs earlier than it returns to service,” the airline mentioned. “We’ll additionally conduct an investigation to higher perceive how this harm occurred.”
The aircraft was carrying 139 passengers and a crew of six, in line with United Airlines. No accidents have been reported.
The aircraft has been in service for greater than 25 years, and it was from a earlier era of 737 plane, in line with Airfleets.internet, an internet site that tracks plane data.
The airport briefly paused operations to examine the runway, and resumed flights after no particles was discovered on the airfield, Amber Judd, the director of the Medford airport, mentioned in an e-mail.
Boeing referred questions concerning the flight to United Airlines. The F.A.A. mentioned it deliberate to research the episode.
The discovery of the lacking panel on Friday got here as Boeing has confronted heavy scrutiny in latest weeks after a door-sized part blew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 Alaska Airlines flight in January simply minutes after it had taken off from Portland, Ore. There have been no main accidents throughout the flight, however the scary episode, which was recorded on video, prompted authorities officers to look into high quality management at Boeing.
After the January flight, the F.A.A. started a six-week audit of Boeing, which discovered “a number of situations” wherein the aircraft maker had did not comply with by way of with quality-control necessities.
Since then, there have been quite a few points with flights on Boeing plane.
On March 8, a United Airlines flight that had landed at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston rolled into the grass because the aircraft, a Boeing 737, exited onto the taxiway, in line with the F.A.A.
In February, a Madrid-bound American Airlines flight, a Boeing 777, diverted to Boston Logan International Airport with a cracked windshield shortly after it had departed from Kennedy International Airport in New York.
