United has had a fourth incident after three separate incidents in the past two days, with one of its 737 MAX 8 skidding off the runway after attempting to vacate the runway and turning onto the taxiway.
By: Yu Le
Published on: 10 March 2024, 7.30pm (GMT +8)
A United 737 MAX 8 skidded off the runway at Houston. Photo: Reuters
United faces a third incident within just two days, with one of its 737-8 MAX skidding off the runway after attempting to vacate the runway onto the last taxiway, SC. The aircraft was finally brought to a stop on the soft ground, and its left main gear collapsed and sank into the ground. The weather was reported at that time to have low visibility and heavy rain.
On the 8th of March, 2024, the 4-year-old aircraft, registered N27290, was operating under flight number UA2477 originating from Memphis International Airport (KMEM/MEM) with 160 passengers and six crew members onboard. There were no casualties among those onboard, and all passengers and crew managed to evacuate safely via stairs, as reported by United Airlines.
The pilots conducted a routine approach and landing into runway 27 at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (KIAH/IAH) at around 8am local time in the morning. Due to the pilots’ failure to slow the aircraft down sufficiently, when the crew attempted to turn the aircraft off the runway via the last exit, it began to skid and continued straight ahead until it eventually went onto soft ground. The aircraft’s left main gear collapsed and sank into the ground, resulting in a significant tilt of the aircraft to the left. The left wing can be seen almost touching the ground in videos circulating online.
The aircraft could be seen with its front wheels off the ground. Photo: HOUSTONCHRONauto/Reddit
The airline has yet to comment on the cause of the incident. An investigation team has been sent by the NTSB to probe further into this incident.
Passengers were brought safely to the terminal on buses and the airline is working on unloading baggage off the aircraft and handing them back to the passengers. There were no disruptions to flights departing and arriving into Houston.
Luck hasn’t been on United’s side. Just a day prior, one of the airline’s Boeing 777-200ER departing from San Francisco had a wheel from its landing gear fall off. On Monday, while cruising above the Gulf of Mexico at approximately 12,000ft, a United Boeing 737-900ER suffered an engine fire and returned back to Houston. This is not the last of United’s woes. On the exact same day, a United Boeing 757 lost power to its right engine while cruising over the Pacific ocean en route to San Francisco from Honolulu, and has already been grounded for more than 36 hours.
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