A United Airlines scheduled flight from San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii made a return to San Francisco after declaring an emergency earlier today.
United Airlines flight UA1509 San Francisco – Honolulu
United Airlines flight UA1509, a Boeing 777-200 operating from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Honolulu Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) made an early turnaround as it was crossing the Pacific enroute to Hawaii.
The aircraft transmitted the 7700 transponder code briefly in the return leg.
Data for today’s service shows flight UA1509 made an on-time departure out of SFO at 16:35 local time (23:35 UTC) on October 30.
Precautionary return to SFO
The flight then established on track for Honolulu (HNL), climbing to cruising altitude FL380 (38,000 feet) for the Pacific crossing.
The aircraft then executed a turnaround at approximately 01:30 UTC whilst on the Pacific crossing; about two hours after departure.
Flight UA1509 then proceeded to negotiate its descent for a return to SFO, squawking transponder code 7700 briefly at around 02:30 UTC whilst established in the descent.
It is understood that a medical issue may have prompted the precautionary return to SFO, though this has not yet been confirmed.
The aircraft conducting the UA1509 rotation today was Boeing 777-222, registration N769UA; a 28-year old aircraft belong to the US carrier United Airlines.
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