Passengers on board a new one United Airlines The flight between Los Angeles and London Heathrow was unexpectedly diverted to Chicago O’Hare on September 26th. AvHerald reported that the captain’s displays went blank as the flight management computers entered a degraded mode.

Vice versa across Hudson Bay

UA231 has departed Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday, September 26, at 1:37 p.m., nearly an hour behind the scheduled departure time of 12:55 p.m. The flight climbed to its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet and headed rapidly northeast toward Canada and ultimately Europe. However, as it passed over Manitoba and Hudson Bay, the captain’s primary flight and navigation displays entered a degraded mode.

Given the conditions and limited flying options, the captain declared an emergency flight and diverted to Chicago O’Hare, United Airlines’ headquarters, where the airline has extensive maintenance facilities.

UA231 was diverted to Chicago

Using alternative navigation instruments and vectors, the captain and the remainder of the flight deck crew were able to navigate back to Chicago via Ontario, Lake Superior, Michigan and Wisconsin before landing at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD). , landing at 9:51 p.m. local time.

Photo: Kevin Hackert | Shutterstock

Affected passengers were transferred to a replacement aircraft that departed Chicago at 1:24 a.m. on the morning of September 27 and arrived at 6:00 p.m London Heathrow Airport at 3:02 p.m. later that day. The replacement service was performed by N13013 (serial number 40931), a Boeing 787-10 that joined the United fleet in March 2020.

The aircraft’s return flight was then delayed, so N13013 flew from London to Denver, Colorado as UA263. Departing at 5:08 p.m. instead of 2:50 p.m., but making up time along the way to arrive in Colorado just 75 minutes behind schedule at 6:50 p.m. (versus 5:35 p.m.).

Nine-year-old N27958

The aircraft that experienced the technical problems was a United Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, registration N27958 (serial number 36406), which can carry up to 271 passengers on board. The nine-year-old aircraft joined the fleet in September 2015 and is frequently used on some of the airline’s most famous routes. Following the incident, N27958 remained on ORD’s apron for two days to conduct a thorough check of its systems and resumed service as UA845 on September 28 Sao Paulo.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Easy flying

This latest incident involving United Airlines occurred just days before Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed its intention to drop a security probe into the United States Star Alliance Carrier. This follows a series of safety incidents, including a United 737 MAX whose landing gear collapsed on the runway in Houston on March 8.

Despite the incident over Hudson Bay, the FAA confirmed it was not continuing its investigation with the airline and reiterated that it had not found any significant safety issues.