On Friday morning, a United Airlines flight landing at George W. Bush Airport in Houston, Texas, “rolled into the grass.”
“The plane is a Boeing 737 Max 8 delivered last June,” CNN reported.
@flightradar24 UAL2477 (?) off the runway at IAH pic.twitter.com/d2w5g1D8Kb
— Ren Ganner (@RenGanner) March 8, 2024
JUST IN: A @united jet is off the runway at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) in Houston. @AirportsHouston tells @KPRC2 there are no injuries. pic.twitter.com/TfCVDIvpjm
— Gage Goulding – KPRC 2 (@GageGoulding) March 8, 2024
According to one report, the airplane “suffered a left main landing gear collapse after trying to taxi off runway 27 at IAH airport in Houston, Texas. It’s unclear whether the gear collapsed as a result running off the taxi way or it failed.
United Airlines Flight 2477 (Boeing 737 MAX 8) has suffered a left main landing gear collapse after trying to taxi off runway 27 at IAH airport in Houston, Texas. It’s unclear whether the gear collapsed as a result running off the taxi way or it failed. Another bad day for United… https://t.co/2GrKI4wRGS pic.twitter.com/uLxrpdrUYc
— Thenewarea51 (@thenewarea51) March 8, 2024
But one X user who claimed to be a passenger on the plane demurred, saying, “I was on this flight and I assure you, the landing gear didn’t fail. We were landed & fully upright. Pilot ran out of runway & tried to turn too fast, we slid off. That’s when landing gear was broken.”
I was on this flight and I assure you, the landing gear didn’t fail. We were landed & fully upright. Pilot ran out of runway & tried to turn too fast, we slid off. That’s when landing gear was broken. Total coverup United.
— Andrea M (@AndreaM987654) March 8, 2024
On Thursday, a United Airlines plane taking off from San Francisco International Airport lost a tire, which plunged to the ground and damaged vehicles in a parking lot. The plane, bound for Japan, which was diverted to Los Angeles.
In January, a fuselage plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 in mid-flight. The National Transportation Safety Board’s Clint Crookshanks told a news conference, “We have not yet recovered the four bolts that restrain it from his vertical movement and we have not yet determined if they existed there. That will be determined when we take the plug to our lab.”
“We don’t know if there were bolts there, or if they are just missing and departed when the door plug departed,” National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy added.
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“The current system is not working; it is not delivering safe aircraft,” FAA chief Michael Whitaker has stated. Boeing and the FAA have agreed that using independent, third-party inspectors to examine Boeing’s assembly lines would be a step toward enhanced safety.
But critics say that such a plan is not sufficient, arguing that a better plan would be for Boeing employees to offer voluntary reports if they spotted manufacturing errors.