The Federal Aviation Administration said a United Airlines plane that took off from San Francisco International Airport on Friday morning landed in Oregon without an exterior panel.
In a press release, United Airlines said the panel was missing after the Boeing 737-800 aircraft landed safely at its scheduled destination at Rogue Valley International Airport in Medford, Oregon, and parked on the gate. It was unclear when or how the panel went missing.
According to the airline, there was no indication of any damage to the plane in the course of the flight, and the plane didn’t report an emergency en path to the Medford airport.
“We will conduct a thorough examination of the aircraft and make all necessary repairs before it returns to service,” the airline said. “We will also conduct an investigation to better understand how this damage occurred.”
According to United Airlines, the plane was carrying 139 passengers and a crew of six. No injuries were reported.
According to Airfleets.net, a web site that tracks aircraft information, the plane has been in service for greater than 25 years and is derived from the previous generation of the 737 aircraft.
The airport briefly suspended operations to envision the runway and resumed flights when no debris was found on the airport, Amber Judd, Medford airport director, said in an email.
Boeing referred questions on the flight to United Airlines. The FAA stated that it planned to research the episode.
The discovery of the missing panel on Friday comes as Boeing has faced intense scrutiny in recent weeks after an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 blew up a door-sized fragment in January just minutes after it took off from Portland, Oregon. He was not seriously injured in the course of the flight, however the terrifying episode caught on video prompted government officials to look into quality control at Boeing.
After the January flight, the FAA began a six-week audit of Boeing that found “multiple instances” during which the planemaker failed to fulfill quality control requirements.
Since then, there have been quite a few problems with flights on Boeing planes.
On March 8, a United Airlines flight that landed at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport rolled on the grass because the Boeing 737 entered the taxiway, in keeping with the FAA.
In February, an American Airlines Boeing 777 sure for Madrid diverted to Boston Logan International Airport with a cracked windshield shortly after departing from Logan International Airport. Kennedy in New York.
