Overnight, it has emerged that a United Airlines Boeing 777 bound for Munich had to make an emergency landing in Houston with a major issue onboard.
Information has come through regarding the incident at hand.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
United Airlines UA102 – Houston to Munich…
United Airlines flight UA102, which made the emergency landing, is a routine scheduled flight between Houston and Munich.
Furthermore, the aircraft involved in the incident was N78009.
As per data from Planespotters.net, N78009 is a 27.2 year old Boeing 777-200ER that started out life with Continental Airlines back in April 1999.
It was then handed over to United Airlines in October 2010 following the completed merger between the two sides.
Also, of the 777-200ER variant, United Airlines has 74 of them in their fleet.
Moreover, of the 74, 61 are in active service, and 13 are parked, with an average fleet age of 27.1 years.
As well as the 777-200 variant, United Airlines has the following other aircraft in their mainline fleet:
- 75 Airbus A319s.
- 67 Airbus A320s.
- 69 Airbus A321s.
- 607 Boeing 737s.
- 61 Boeing 757s.
- 53 Boeing 767s.
- 22 Boeing 777-300ERs.
- 87 Boeing 787 Dreamliners.
In total, the airline has 1,115 aircraft in their mainline fleet, of which 1059 are in active service, and 56 are parked, with an average fleet age of 15.2 years.
United Airlines flight UA102, which made the emergency landing, departed from Houston at 1831 local time on June 19, and was beginning it’s climb-out phase towards Munich.
However, not too long after departure, a problem occurred with the Boeing 777, which forced an immediate u-turn back to the Texan airport.
After around 40 minutes in the air, the aircraft landed safely without further incident.
What Was The Reason for the Emergency Landing?
According to eyewitnesses, the reason for the emergency landing onboard United Airlines flight UA102 Houston-Munich was due to the right hand engine catching fire after departure.
A passenger onboard the aircraft reported hearing 15 loud bangs come from the engine, presumably the compressor in the engine stalling.
After arrival into the airport, the aircraft was met by emergency crews which checked the aircraft and escorted it to the gate.
A replacement Boeing 777-200, registered N798UA, was assigned to carry the affected passengers onwards to Munich, which it did so in the early hours of this morning.
As for N78009, the aircraft impacted by the engine problem, data from Flightradar24 indicates that the aircraft is expected to fly today, but that could change depending on the damage to the engine and whether it is quick fix or not.
As soon as we have more information pertinent to the incident at hand, we will update you accordingly.
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