United B777 San Francisco-Frankfurt Declares Emergency, Diverts to London

United Airlines flight UA926, a B777-300ER enroute from San Francisco to Frankfurt, declared an emergency and diverted to London Heathrow earlier this afternoon.

A United Airlines Boeing 777-300ER conducting the service from San Francisco to Frankfurt declared an emergency and diverted to London earlier today, 17 October 2024.

United Airlines flight UA926, a B777-300ER out of San Francisco International Airport (SFO), declared an emergency with squawk code 7700. The flight was in transit over the United Kingdom en route to Frankfurt am Main International airport (FRA) when the emergency was declared.

United Airlines UA926 San Francisco-Frankfurt

Flight track of United Airlines UA926 showing diversion to London.

Following the emergency declaration, flight crew diverged south from flight plan track and initiated a diversion to London Heathrow Airport (LHR).

The nature of the emergency which prompted the off-track diversion is not yet known.

Flight Details

Flight data shows that flight UA926 made an on-time departure out of San Francisco International Airport. ATD was logged as 1937 local time on 16 October.

The flight had proceeded normally, climbing to flight level FL370 (37,000 feet) for the transatlantic service to Frankfurt, Germany. Flight crew squawked transponder code 7700 at 1154 UTC from cruising flight. The aircraft was transiting the United Kingdom en route to the destination at the time.

The flight arrived in the London region at the same time as an Air India flight inbound from Mumbai declared an emergency after the Indian airline received a bomb threat.

United Airlines flight UA926 subsequently landed at the diversion airport London Heathrow at approximately 1230 UTC today.

N509FZ, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The aircraft conducting the UA926 service from San Francisco was a Boeing 777-300ER, registered N2737U. This is a 7.6-year-old wide-body aircraft belonging to the carrier United Airlines. It has been in operational service with the airline since its initial delivery from the factory in March 2017.

The aircraft was in a recent incident on 15 May 2024 at San Francisco (SFO). In that incident, the aircraft sustained a bird strike whilst landing, resulting in damage to its left engine intake. United returned the aircraft to service on 18 May 2024.

Update: Medical Emergency Prompts Diversion

Update via the online source Flight Emergency: United Airlines flight UA926, originally bound for Frankfurt, diverted to London due to a medical emergency earlier today.