United Flight New York-Denver Makes Swift Diversion to Wichita

In the last half hour, a United Airlines flight between New York and Denver has just made a very swift diversion to Wichita.

United Flight New York-Denver Makes Swift Diversion to Wichita…

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United Airlines flight UA551 is a routine scheduled flight between New York Newark and Denver, with the affected rotation that diverted to Wichita being operated by N62892.

As per data from Planespotters.net, N62892 is a 8.2 year old Boeing 737-900ER that was delivered to the carrier back in October 2015.

Of the Boeing 737-900ER variant, the U.S carrier has 136 of them in their expansive fleet, consisting of 123 in active service, and 13 parked, holding an average fleet age of 11.0 years.

United Airlines flight UA551 departed New York Newark at 1420 local time this afternoon and proceeded westbound to Denver.

Upon nearing the Kansas border, the Boeing 737-900ER initially descended from FL340 down to FL280.

From there, the flight made a swift descent and detour to nearby Wichita where the aircraft landed safely.

At this time, there is no confirmation for the cause of this diversion, but the flight already has a departure slot to continue on to Denver from New York Newark via Wichita.

In cases like this, it indicates that it could be a passenger-related event such as a medical or a disturbance on the aircraft, but we won’t know this until we get official confirmation in due course.

Therefore, this remains a developing story. As soon as we have more information, we will update you in due course.

Updates…

UPDATE #1 @ 2332 UK time – It appears United Airlines flight UA551 has not taxied to a stand yet and has been sat idle on the taxiway for quite some time after arrival. @RadarBoxCom data has been compared with other trackers and are showing the same.

UPDATE #2 @ 2334 UK time – It is key to note that UA551 did not squawk the emergency code at any time as far as we know during this diversion into Wichita.

UPDATE #3 @ 2336 UK time – UA551 has been given taxi clearance to the stand.

UPDATE #4 @ 2338 UK time – Couldn’t exactly hear the cause of the diversion other than it clearly stating over the frequency that fire crews were in attendance.