Earlier this week, a United Airlines flight suffered an engine stall not long after departure from Houston.
Video was taken by a passenger onboard showing the encounter, which provided intimidating viewing.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
UA1118 – Houston to Fort Myers…
United Airlines flight UA1118 is a routine scheduled flight between Houston and Fort Myers.
The aircraft involved in this incident is N31412.
As per data from Planespotters.net, N31412 is a 21.9 year old Boeing 737-900 that was delivered to Continental Airlines back in April 2002.
Following it’s merger with United Airlines, the aircraft was subsequently handed over in October 2010.
Of the 737-900 variant, the airline has 12 of them, with 136 of the ER variant.
UA1118 departed Houston at 1840 local time on March 4 and initially proceeded eastbound to Fort Myers.
As per reporting from The Aviation Herald, when the aircraft reached 12,000 feet, an engine stall occurred.
Passengers observed a series of bangs and flames come from the left hand engine on the 737-900.
From there, a return was initiated to Houston, where the aircraft landed safely at 1919 local time, nearly 40 minutes after departure.
Grounded for Three Days Following the Incident…
The video above shows video from a passenger who observed the engine stall as it happened.
As a result of this incident, the United Airlines aircraft was subsequently grounded in Houston for three days.
The relevant fixes were made and the aircraft headed on out to Orlando at around 0720 in the morning on March 7.
It is understood a replacement aircraft was sent to pick up the stranded passengers, where they landed in Fort Myers three hours and 15 minutes late.
Overall…
Overall, with the aircraft having one functioning engine, the United Airlines flight from Houston was able to land safely.
With the aircraft now back in commercial service, the relevant fixes have been made and is deemed airworthy again.
This is the second incident involving a UA aircraft this week, following a Boeing 757 suffering an engine failure whilst enroute to San Francisco.
For now, that is it for incidents on the United Airlines side, at least for the meantime.
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