LONDON – As 2022 comes to an end, some United Airlines customers will, unfortunately, be spending New Year’s Eve without their family this year, as a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Sydney had to make an emergency landing into Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa.
United Airlines flight 839 departed Los Angeles just before Midnight, local time on Thursday, but when an issue with the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners right engine popped up, the crew were forced into making the unscheduled stop.
The image above shows the aircraft flight on Radarbox.com, which you can see shows the aircraft was delayed departing Los Angeles and its unplanned stop in Pago Pago.
A United Airlines spokesperson said: “Today’s flight diverted to Pago Pago to address a mechanical issue,”
“We’re making use of our facilities, including available hotel options, to accommodate our customers, and will fly in a new aircraft to the island, so they can finish their trip to Sydney soon.”
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the rescue flight is due to arrive in American Samoa later today and should get the passengers into Sydney at around 7:15 am on Sunday, January 1, 2023, 24 hours after the initial flight was due to arrive.
United 839 Diversion Ends Misserible Christmas Period For Australian Travellers
The Diversion of United airlines flight UA839 closes what has been a very disappointing end to the year for Australian travellers, who have seen a very unfortunate Christmas period of flight emergencies and diversions.
A faulty sensor in the aircraft hold sent out a false problem to the cockpit, however, no official comment has been released about this at the time of writing.
The diversion meant that the customers ended up missing out on seeing some family over the Christmas weekend, with Qantas dispatching another A380 to collect the customers on December 24th.
Read more: Qantas Dispatches A380 to collect stranded passengers in Baku
After all of this then, earlier this week Australian Travellers on Jetstar Flight JQ35, was forced to turn back from Baku after its landing approval was denied.
Read More: Jetstar Bali Flight Returns After landing approval denied
With all the disruption to planned Holiday travel for Australian customers, I am sure airlines and passengers alike will be happy to see the end of the year, and look forward to 2023, which should be a year that further helps grow the aviation Industry not just in Australia but globally after the COVID-19 outbreak.
