A United Airlines flight operating from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo has declared an emergency shortly after departure.
United Airlines flight UA3884, a Boeing 767-400 bound for São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport, declared an emergency with transponder code 7700. The flight is currently holding in the Rio de Janeiro area.
United UA3884 Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo
15:30 UTC: Approach to Rio de Janeiro (GIG)
Flight UA3884 has now left the holding pattern and is conducting a return to Rio de Janeiro. The nature of the emergency is not yet known. The flight had made a late departure, with the airline advising that the delay was due to technical issues with the aircraft.
Landed Rio de Janeiro (GIG)
Having declared an emergency shortly after takeoff, United flight has now landed at the origin airport Rio de Janeiro/Galeão International Airport (GIG).
Flight Details
Flight data shows that United flight UA3884 had originally departed Galeão International Airport at 1138 local time today. The airline had notified a departure delay due to a technical issue with the aircraft.
The flight had then conducted a departure and subsequently levelled off at flight level FL150 (15,000 feet). The aircraft then maintained that altitude before squawking transponder code 7700 at 1511 UTC.
Following the emergency declaration, flight crew entered a holding procedure at FL150 to the west of the airport. The holding period was possibly to permit the flight crew to run troubleshooting checks.
Following a brief period of holding, the flight was then returned to the departure airport.
The aircraft conducting today’s UA3884 service to Sao Paulo was a Boeing 767-400, registered N67052. This is a 24.1 year old widebody aircraft belonging to the carrier United Airlines. It has been in operational service with the airline since October 2010. Prior to its current service it was operated by merger airline Continental Airlines since its initial delivery from the factory in September 200.
UPDATE #1 @ 1745 UK time – United Airlines told AviationSource that UA3884 is a ferry flight.
They didn’t provide us with a statement other than that information.
UPDATE #2 @ 1816 UK time – United Airlines have now provided AviationSource with a statement. It reads:
“This aircraft was being moved to São Paulo without passengers and returned to Rio de Janeiro and landed safely to address a technical issue.”
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