United Airlines Suffers 11th Mechanical Issue in Two Weeks

The number of mechanical issues experienced by United Airlines planes in the past two weeks has apparently increased to 11, as a reader wrote to Newsweek of an incident on her flight.

"I was on a flight last night, EWR to Heathrow UA14," the reader wrote, describing her March 18 journey from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey to London.

She continued: "Approximately 40 minutes after takeoff, we were told we needed to turn around as the wheels were not retracting. We headed back to Newark, prepared to brace for landing, but ultimately had a safe landing. Another plane was brought for us after we landed in Newark."

FlightAware, a flight-tracking website, shows that the flight took off from Newark at 8:22 p.m. EDT, behind its scheduled departure time of 7:55 p.m., and returned to EWR at 10:06 p.m.

In a statement to Newsweek, the airline said: "United flight 14 returned to Newark on Monday to address a possible landing gear issue. The flight landed safely. We arranged for another aircraft to take our customers to their destination later that evening."

Prior to this incident, Newsweek counted a total of ten other incidents occurring on United Airlines planes that took off from or landed in U.S. airports in the past two weeks.

Scott Kirby, the CEO of the Chicago-based airline, addressed the recent string of incidents Monday in a message to United's customers. He said the company was investigating each case and using the findings to learn the "right lessons" and "continue to run an operation that puts safety first."

"Unfortunately, in the past few weeks, our airline has experienced a number of incidents that are reminders of the importance of safety. While they are all unrelated, I want you to know that these incidents have our attention and have sharpened our focus," Kirby wrote.

The company will be updating its safety trainings and procedures across all employees on top of already planned changes, including an extra day of in-person training for all pilots starting in May, according to the CEO.

These are the ten other known incidents the airline has experienced in the past two weeks:

1. March 4: A flight from Houston to Fort Myers, Florida, made an emergency landing after an engine fire.
2. March 4: The same day as the engine fire, another United Airlines plane bound for San Francisco from Honolulu experienced engine failure mid-flight, but it landed safely.
3. March 7: A plane bound for Osaka, Japan, from San Francisco lost a tire during takeoff.
4. March 8: A flight from San Francisco to Mexico City made an emergency landing in Los Angeles because of a hydraulics problem.
5. March 8: A second incident the same day as the emergency landing in Los Angeles saw a United Airlines aircraft roll off a runway before getting stuck in grass at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.
6. March 9: A plane heading for Salt Lake City was forced to return to Chicago O'Hare International Airport because of a maintenance problem.
7. March 11: A flight bound for San Francisco had to return to Sydney because of a maintenance issue.
8. March 14: A plane from Dallas–Fort Worth arrived in San Francisco with a "small amount of smoke" and a hydraulic leak.
9. March 15: A United Airlines plane that flew from San Francisco to Oregon was found to be missing an external panel upon landing.
10. March 18: A United Airlines flight bound for Osaka, Japan, was grounded at San Francisco International Airport because of a mechanical failure.

This list previously appeared in another Newsweek article showing a map of the incidents.

Update 3/20/24, 7:35 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include a comment from United Airlines.