The Federal Aviation Administration will examine United Airlines’ operations more closely in the approaching weeks following a series of recent safety incidents, the airline told employees in a memo Friday.
“We will begin to see a greater FAA presence in our operations as they begin to review some of our work processes, manuals and facilities,” Sasha Johnson, vp of corporate safety on the airline, said in a memo. “We welcome their involvement and are very open to hearing from them about what they discover and their approach to things we may need to change to make us even safer.”
In among the incidents, which United says are unrelated, a plane veered off the runway, one other arrived at its destination with a panel missing from its body, one other lost a tire after takeoff and an engine caught fire after ingesting plastic packaging.
The FAA said in a press release that it “routinely” monitors airline operations. The agency said it “focuses on the airline’s compliance with applicable regulations; ability to identify hazards, assess and reduce risks; and manage security effectively.”
In the memo, United Johnson said the agency would also “pause quite a lot of certification activities for a time frame.”
United CEO Scott Kirby sought to reassure customers this week that the airline is taking safety seriously in the wake of the incidents.
“I want you to know that these incidents have captured our attention and sharpened our focus,” he wrote in an email to customers. “Our team analyzes the details of each case to understand what happened and uses these insights to inform our training and safety procedures across all employee groups.”
Experts caution against drawing sweeping conclusions from episodes that are disturbing but are common in aviation and often go unreported by the media.
