Earlier today, United Express flight UA4302 from Knoxville to Houston declared an emergency, prompting a diversion.
This flight was operated by CommutAir on behalf of United Express.
Below is what we know on the incident so far.
United Express UA4302 – Knoxville to Houston…
United Express flight UA4302, which declared the emergency, is a routine scheduled flight between Knoxville and Houston.
Furthermore, the aircraft involved in the incident was N14203.
As per data from Planespotters.net, N14203 is a 19.9 year old Embraer E145 that originally started out with ExpressJet Airlines back in May 2006.
It operated the aircraft for Continental Express until the merger with UA happened, and transferred over to United Express where CommutAir then took over the contract as well.
Of the Embraer E145 variant, United Express has 64 of them in their fleet.
Moreover, of the 64, 56 are in active service, and eight are parked, with an average fleet age of 21.7 years.
United Express flight UA4302, which declared the emergency, departed from Knoxville at 1139 local time on March 30, and headed out towards Houston.
Over the Mississippi area, the aircraft declared an emergency via the 7700 squawk code, and proceeded to divert to Jackson Evers International Airport.
The aircraft landed safely without further incident following the 7700 broadcast.
Reason for the Emergency?: Engine Failure…
As per @FlightEmergency on X, United Express UA4302 Knoxville-Houston diverted to Jackson Evers International Airport due to an engine failure onboard the aircraft.
The aircraft has been on the ground since the incident happened, with no indication into when it will return back to service.
It was supposed to operate the return flight from Houston tomorrow, but it is likely a different aircraft will get allocated to that segment instead.
As soon as we have more information pertinent to this, we will update you accordingly.
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