It has emerged that a United Airlines Boeing 777 operating a flight between San Francisco & Kahului suffered strong turbulence which resulted in oxygen masks being deployed.
Information has been released pertinent to this incident, which we will get into in this article.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
United Airlines Flight UA1273 – San Francisco to Kahului…
United Airlines flight UA1273, which suffered the turbulence event, is a routine scheduled flight between San Francisco & Kahului.
Furthermore, the aircraft involved specifically in the incident is N777UA.
As per data from Planespotters.net, N777UA is a 29.2 year old Boeing 777-200 that was delivered to the airline in May 1995.
Of the 777-200 variant, United Airlines has 74 of them in the fleet.
Furthermore, of that 74, all but three are in active service, with an average fleet age of 25.1 years.
Also, across the mainline UA fleet, they also have the following aircraft in the fleet:
- 81 Airbus A319s.
- 87 Airbus A320s.
- 11 Airbus A321neos.
- 496 Boeing 737 aircraft.
- 61 Boeing 757 aircraft.
- 53 Boeing 767 aircraft.
- 96 Boeing 777 aircraft.
- 71 Boeing 787 aircraft.
United Airlines flight UA1273 departed San Francisco at 0847 local time on June 18 and tracked west to Kahului.
As per reporting from The Aviation Herald, it is understood the aircraft encountered severe turbulence.
Furthermore, it is understood that such turbulence was heavy enough to cause the passenger oxygen masks to drop.
The masks didn’t drop due to pilot input, but was caused by the turbulence itself.
Despite this, United Airlines flight UA1273 from San Francisco landed safely into Kahului at 1057 local time without further incident.
Aircraft Back in Service Already…
Following this incident, the aircraft was grounded for around eight hours.
Furthermore, this was no doubt due to the oxygen masks needing to be reinstalled on the aircraft.
Data from RadarBox highlights that the United Airlines Boeing 777 eventually departed Kahului that same day back to San Francisco following the turbulence incident.
No flights have been recorded for the aircraft for June 19, indicating that further fixes may be needed.
The flight tracking company states that the aircraft is expected to operate a sector to Newark and then back to SFO.
Recent Turbulence Incidents…
There have been a few turbulence incidents over the last few weeks, with the United Airlines 777 between San Francisco & Kahului being the latest.
Around a month or so ago, a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777 plunged 178 feet in five seconds due to heavy turbulence.
The incident, which occurred on 21 May 2024, tragically resulted in one passenger fatality and multiple injuries.
Not long after that, 12 people were injured on a Qatar Airways Boeing 787 between Doha and Dublin.
Qatar Airways released the following statement on this:
“Qatar Airways can confirm that flight QR017 a Boeing B787-9 from Doha to Dublin has landed safely.”
“A small number of passengers and crew sustained minor injuries in flight and are now receiving medical attention.”
“The matter is now subject to an internal investigation. The safety and security of our passengers and crew are our top priority.”
Finally, two people were injured on June 16 on an Air New Zealand flight between Wellington and Queenstown.
The incident occurred on flight NZ607 during beverage service in the passenger cabin.
The sudden jolt of turbulence caused a full coffee pot to spill, burning one passenger.
With the United Airlines Boeing 777 suffering turbulence between San Francisco and Kahului, it will be interesting to see whether an additional focus will be made onto these incidents.
As soon as we have more information pertinent to this, then we will update you accordingly.
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