United Airlines Grapples With String Of Aircraft Incidents

United Airlines is in damage control mode as the carrier has been at the center of scrutiny this week with four separate aircraft mishaps including an engine fire, faulty tire, runway excursion and, most recently, a hydraulic issue.

The latest incident came Friday afternoon when a flight departing San Francisco was forced to make an emergency landing in Los Angeles after experiencing issues with the aircraft’s hydraulic system. According to airline officials, the aircraft, an Airbus A320, landed safely and passengers were deplaned.

The hydraulic issue followed three other occurrences earlier this week involving Boeing aircraft. Flight 2477, a Boeing 737 Max traveling from Memphis, Tennessee, veered off the side of a taxiway and got stuck after landing at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

In another bizarre instance, a United Boeing 777 flight departing San Francisco bound for Osaka, Japan, lost a tire on takeoff, which did not injure anyone, but wrecked two cars in an employee parking lot on Thursday.

Those emergencies followed Monday’s incident when a Boeing 737 Max flight en route to Florida was forced to return back to Houston after one of its engines caught fire. United said the compressor stall broke after bubble wrap on the field was sucked into the engine on takeoff.  

According to a Bloomberg report, United said it would investigate each incident to determine what happened and learn from them—noting that each event was unrelated to one another.