Two more incidents to report today that occurred on recent Hawaii flights. If you were on any of these flights, let us know. We flew one of the routes (Dulles to Honolulu) in December. These two issues are reported by FlightAware and by Aviation Herald.
Loss of cabin pressure on Maui to San Francisco flight.
The incident occurred last Friday, February 16, 2024 on UA1639. This was on the red-eye flight that departed Maui at 11:33 p.m. The plane was over the Pacific at 34,000 feet, about 240 miles northeast of Honolulu when loss of cabin pressure occurred on the 16-year-old Boeing 737-800.
Just over two hours after departure, the plane returned safely to Hawaii, this time to Honolulu Airport. When the issue occurred, it resulted in the following:
1) The passenger oxygen masks were deployed.
2) The plane descended rapidly at a rate of about 3,000 feet per minute to a safe-to-fly not pressurized altitude of 10,000 feet.
3) A flight diversion to Honolulu was performed.
4) The remainder of the flight was canceled and passengers were otherwise accommodated.
5) The aircraft remained in Honolulu until Monday, February 19, when a special flight returned the aircraft to San Francisco. That flight appeared to operate normally and was at a typical flight altitude.
The loss of cabin pressure on UA Flight 1639 was a serious event.
It was handled with prompt action by the United flight crew to ensure the well-being of everyone on board. Kudos to United Airlines.
Decompression or loss of cabin pressure leads to a decrease in oxygen available to passengers and crew. This can result from various things, including a malfunction in the plane pressurization system or any breach in the aircraft’s structure, among other things.
When loss of cabin pressure occurs, the risk potentials include hypoxia, barotrauma, and hypothermia. To prevent these issues, airlines may fly at an altitude of just 10,000 feet until reaching their destination.
We were informed by an airline pilot friend recently, that planes have enough fuel to reach the intended destination fly while flying at that low altitude, even though doing so consumes significantly more fuel.
Tail strike on flight from Washington DC to Honolulu.
A United Airlines Boeing 767-400, operating Flight 345, also had an incident. This time it was a tail strike on departure from Dulles that also occurred last week. That incident prevented the 22-year-old plane from continuing to Hawaii. The FAA confirmed the incident, saying that “Aircraft encountered a tail strike during departure and returned to IAD.”
That plane’s tail hit the runway during takeoff. The crew still climbed to 28,000 feet, but subsequently returned to Dulles about an hour after departure.
United was able to quickly replace the aircraft with another 767-400. In total, the flight was delayed about six hours. After inspection, the aircraft that had the tail strike was also returned to service later that day.
Software glitch causing two Hawaii tail strikes caused brief nationwide ground stop last year.
In 2023, a software problem resulted in tail strikes on two Alaska Airlines Hawaii flights. Subsequently, the carrier initiated a ground stop until the issue was resolved. That took only 22 minutes.
Airline tail strikes are an unusual occurrence.
Minor tail strikes may not be dangerous, but a thorough inspection, as occurred in last week’s United incident, is indicated.
We were on UA 1724, departing from Kona to SF on Feb 13. About an hour or two after takeoff, turbulence was so bad that some air masks dropped off. There was no cabin decompression, plane did not descend. Still, it was a bit jarring.
On the way to Honolulu,
UA 345 departed on Feb 05. There was strong turbulence 2 hours before landing. I never experienced something like this before these two flights. And I fly 2-6 times a year, between 4 – 15 flights, often over Atlantics. Is this common for the Hawaii bound-departing flights to have such a strong turbulence?
what causes engine shut down on flight? And what do they do when you are in the air pretty high?
Wait for all the facts of that sudden cabin depressurization before we jump to what UAL owes who, and how much. It’s easy to say $175 is not enough, and everyone on board is likely to deserve more. If the incident was somehow determined to be negligence or an act of god or a combination thereof, it will have great impact on the outcome. Just because grown men cried doesn’t mean a massive settlement.
Nobody’s asking for a settlement. Those of us on the flight, just wanted to be treated with respect and dignity. United should have a diversion plan in place for situations like this. To leave everyone stranded in an airport, without answers or accommodations is unprofessional. Good customer service goes along way, and we certainly did not receive that.