A United Airways flight that took off on Friday morning from San Francisco Worldwide Airport landed in Oregon lacking an exterior panel, the Federal Aviation Administration stated.
The panel was discovered to be lacking after the airplane, a Boeing 737-800, landed safely at its scheduled vacation spot at Rogue Valley Worldwide Medford Airport in Oregon and parked at a gate, United Airways stated in an announcement. It was unclear when or how the panel went lacking.
In response to the airline, there was no indication of any harm to the airplane in the course of the flight, and the plane didn’t declare an emergency on its approach to the Medford airport.
“We’ll conduct an intensive examination of the airplane and carry out all of the wanted repairs earlier than it returns to service,” the airline stated. “We’ll additionally conduct an investigation to raised perceive how this harm occurred.”
The airplane was carrying 139 passengers and a crew of six, in accordance with United Airways. No accidents had been reported.
The airplane has been in service for greater than 25 years, and it was from a earlier era of 737 plane, in accordance with Airfleets.web, a web site that tracks plane data.
The airport briefly paused operations to examine the runway, and resumed flights after no particles was discovered on the airfield, Amber Judd, the director of the Medford airport, stated in an e-mail.
Boeing referred questions in regards to the flight to United Airways. The F.A.A. stated it deliberate to research the episode.
The invention of the lacking panel on Friday got here as Boeing has confronted heavy scrutiny in current weeks after a door-sized part blew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 Alaska Airways flight in January simply minutes after it had taken off from Portland, Ore. There have been no main accidents in the course of the flight, however the horrifying episode, which was recorded on video, prompted authorities officers to look into high quality management at Boeing.
After the January flight, the F.A.A. started a six-week audit of Boeing, which discovered “a number of situations” wherein the airplane maker had didn’t comply with by with quality-control necessities.
Since then, there have been various points with flights on Boeing plane.
On March 8, a United Airways flight that had landed at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston rolled into the grass because the airplane, a Boeing 737, exited onto the taxiway, in accordance with the F.A.A.
In February, a Madrid-bound American Airways flight, a Boeing 777, diverted to Boston Logan Worldwide Airport with a cracked windshield shortly after it had departed from Kennedy Worldwide Airport in New York.
