The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has confirmed it is sending a ‘go team’ to investigate an accident involving a United Airlines Boeing 737MAX at Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Friday morning.
At around 8 am on Friday, United flight UA2477 landed at IAH as normal but then ended up in the grass at the end of the runway where the left-hand wheel gear collapsed.
In a statement, United Airlines confirmed that all 160 passengers and six crew members escaped the four-year-old aircraft unscathed after they were able to deplane via mobile airsteps that were positioned at the front right-hand door.
Flight 2477 departed Memphis as scheduled and, after an uneventful flight, landed as normal on runway 27 at IAH. The pilots then taxied the aircraft to the end of the runway, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says that at this point, the aircraft “rolled” onto the grass.
It’s believed that the wheel gear collapsed after the aircraft rolled onto the grass.
A spokesperson for United Airlines told us: “All passengers have been bused to the terminal and are being assisted by our team with their onward connections and other needs.”
“We are removing luggage from the aircraft and will work to reunite customers with their belongings as quickly as possible. We are thankful for the actions of our crew to deplane all passengers safely. We will work with the NTSB, FAA and Boeing to understand what happened.”
Air traffic control recordings suggest that the pilots had requested to taxi to the very end of runway 27 in order to taxi to the gate faster. The request was approved by the tower, but the controller asked the pilots to keep the speed up because another aircraft was due to land behind them.
It’s been a pretty eventful 24 hours for United Airlines after a Boeing 777-200 flying from San Francisco to Osaka, Japan, on Thursday lost a tire during the takeoff roll. The tire ended up damaging several cars in an airport parking lot, while the aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport.
Also on Thursday, the NTSB published a preliminary report into an incident involving another United Airlines Boeing 737MAX in which the rudder pedals became ‘stuck’ during landing.
The investigation into that is still ongoing, although the NTSB is probing whether the stuck rudder pedals was caused by a deactivated component within the rudder control system freezing.
