United Airways isn’t having an amazing 24 hours in terms of its fleet. Yesterday, a United Boeing 777 misplaced a wheel after takeoff, and at the moment a United Boeing 737 had its gear collapse after touchdown.
United Boeing 737 MAX gear collapses after touchdown in Houston
This incident occurred at the moment (Friday, March 8, 2024), and entails United Airways flight UA2477, scheduled to fly from Memphis (MEM) to Houston (IAH). The flight was operated by a four-year-old Boeing 737 MAX 8 with the license plate N27290.
The 81-minute flight was routine, and touched down in Houston on runway 27 at 7:58AM, properly forward of its scheduled 8:28AM arrival. Sadly issues then shortly took a flip for the more severe. The airplane exited on the very finish of the runway, however by some means ended up within the grass, with the left rear gear collapsing.
As of now, the order of occasions isn’t completely clear — we don’t know if the airplane taxied into the grass and that induced the gear collapse, or if the gear collapsed and that induced the airplane to finish up within the grass.
There have been no accidents, and passengers and crew ended up deplaning the plane by stairs. Whenever you have a look at United’s flight standing web page for this flight, it reveals as having arrived 24 minutes early, although the gate is listed as “HOLD.” Hah.
The odd a part of this United Boeing 737 MAX incident
Right here’s what I discover so fascinating about this incident. Runway 27 in Houston is 10,000 ft lengthy, in order that’s much more runway than a 737 wants. So at first I used to be curious how the airplane ended up within the grass on the very finish of the runway. Did the pilots simply contact down approach too late, did they wrestle to decelerate, or what?
Based mostly on air visitors management audio shared on-line, you’ll be able to hear the United pilots requesting to “roll all of it the best way to the top.” That will get accredited by the air visitors controller, however the United pilots are advised to “preserve [their] pace up.” The rationale they’d presumably need to roll to the top is as a result of it makes for a shorter taxi to their arrival gate. In the meantime the rationale the air visitors controller needed the pilots to maintain their pace up is as a result of there’s one other airplane touchdown behind them, so that you don’t need that maneuver to intrude with one other touchdown.
One wonders what precisely went incorrect there. It doesn’t sound like there was a problem proper upon touchdown, or else the pilots wouldn’t have been voluntarily rolling it to the top. So did they preserve their pace up an excessive amount of after which wrestle to decelerate, or how did they find yourself within the grass on the finish of the runway? I’m certain this can all grow to be clear fairly quickly, after an investigation is carried out.
As a lot because the Boeing 737 MAX will get fairly a little bit of blame for issues, I wouldn’t instantly assume that that is associated to some bigger downside with the jet. Let’s watch for the investigation earlier than drawing any conclusions.
Backside line
A United Airways Boeing 737 MAX suffered a touchdown gear collapse upon arrival in Houston. Stuff like this occurs, however the circumstances are uncommon. The pilots requested to roll to the top of the runway (presumably for a sooner taxi to the gate), however then by some means ended up within the grass on the finish of the runway.
What do you make of this United 737 MAX gear collapse incident?
