A portion of a United Airlines plane was discovered missing upon inspection Friday afternoon in southern Oregon, adding to the airline's list of mishaps.
United Airlines Flight 433 took off from San Francisco and landed successfully 90 minutes later at Rogue Valley International Airport in Medford, Oregon, at 11:53 a.m.
Airport staff noticed “a piece of the underside of the plane,” a Boeing 737-800, was missing during a routine post-flight inspection, airport director Amber Goode told The Times.
“Our airport operations were briefly halted so we could conduct a runway safety inspection to look for debris,” Judd said. “We didn't find anything.”
Judd said the plane landed safely and all 139 passengers and six crew members got out without any problem.
The flight was scheduled to continue to Denver, but was initially delayed for 3 hours and 35 minutes before it was eventually cancelled.
“My understanding is that most passengers were aware of the delay and circumstances, although some may not have known,” Judd said.
United Airlines said in a statement on Friday that the flight crew did not declare an emergency to airport staff because “there was no indication of damage during the flight.”
“After the plane was parked at the gate, it was discovered that it was missing a plate,” United’s statement said. “We will conduct a thorough inspection of the aircraft and make all necessary repairs before it returns to service.”
The airlines also said they would conduct an investigation.
Judd said the plane was an older 737-8 and not one of the Boeing Max planes that came under scrutiny in January after a door panel exploded on an Alaska Airlines flight that departed from Portland, Oregon.
However, four Boeing planes operated by United have been involved in accidents over the past two weeks.
A Boeing spokesperson referred all questions to United Airlines regarding the company's fleet and operations.
On Monday, a United Airlines flight to San Francisco returned about two hours after leaving Sydney. The Boeing 777-300 returned due to a maintenance issue.
Before that, a United Airlines Boeing 777-200 made an emergency landing in Los Angeles after a tire collapsed on March 7.
There was also an emergency landing in Houston on March 4 after flames were detected coming from a United Airlines Boeing 737-900ER. United confirmed that the engine had ingested bubble wrap.
Four days later, the Boeing 737-8 MAX rolled into the grass near a runway in Houston as it landed, although no passengers were injured.
United stressed that there were no casualties in any of these incidents.
United's statement said: “We take every safety incident seriously and will investigate all incidents that occurred this month to understand what happened and learn from them.” “Much of this work is done in collaboration with manufacturers, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as well as with individual component manufacturers.”
