On November 25th, a United Airlines Boeing 767-400 was roughly two hours
into a transatlantic journey from Newark to Barcelona when the crew reported the
presence of smoke in the cabin. The decision was made to divert to the nearest suitable
airport. Let’s look at this incident and how it was resolved by United in today’s video…
All set to perform flight UA120 from Newark Liberty to Barcelona's El Prat Airport, a United
Airlines Boeing 767-400 registered N66051 took off at 19:52 local time on the 25th of November.
According to The Aviation Herald, the aircraft was enroute at Flight level 360, about 220 nautical
miles south-southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland (Canada) when smoke was detected in the cabin.
It was then decided that the flight should divert to St. John's,
with pilots requesting an ILS approach to runway 29.
A safe landing was performed approximately 30 minutes after the pilots initiated a diversion.
The aircraft vacated runway 29 and taxied to the apron where
it was met by emergency services. The Aviation Herald also notes that
firefighters inspected the aircraft but found no fire, heat, or smoke.
A replacement aircraft was dispatched by United to collect passengers left
stranded in St. John's. This 'rescue' aircraft is another Boeing 767-400.
Registered N69063, the jet continued the journey onwards to Barcelona,
albeit in a seemingly roundabout manner. FlightRadar24.com noted
that the replacement jet didn't directly fly affected passengers from St. John's to Barcelona.
Instead, the aircraft flew back to Newark as flight UA3028 before
resuming service to Barcelona as flight UA3029.
It’s interesting that this replacement aircraft headed back to Newark and spent
just 90 minutes on the ground before heading to Barcelona. Simple Flying
reached out to United about this but failed to hear back from the airline.
As for the incident aircraft,
it remained in St John's for a few days - until at least November 28th.
The incident aircraft is a Boeing 767-400 registered N66051 that is
now nearly 22 and a half years old. With MSN 29446 and Line Number 799,
the jet was first delivered to Continental Airlines in August of 2000.
The aircraft was originally configured with 35 seats in business class and 200 in economy.
Then, in 2012, the aircraft was reconfigured to seat 39 in business and 203 in economy.
AeroInside notes that the aircraft has had a
few incidents over its 22-year career. On March 20th, 2014,
the aircraft reported "minor technical problems" flying out of Zurich en route to Washington.
The aircraft made the decision to return to Zurich as a result. The jet would
go on to experience two separate incidents with bleed air issues.
The first of these took place in July 2015, resulting in a rejected take-off at Washington
Dulles. The second bleed air-related incident took place more recently, on March 13th, 2022.
This prompted the crew to stop its climb and return to the origin airport.
What do you think of this incident? Have you flown on a United Airlines (or Continental)
Boeing 767-400 before? Share your experiences by leaving a comment.