United flight from San Francisco missing external panel after landing in Oregon

[Wicked Blue]

NBC

A United Airlines plane that departed Friday from San Francisco International Airport was missing an external panel when it landed at its destination in Medford, Oregon.

United released the following statement:

"This afternoon, United flight 433 landed safely at its scheduled destination at Rogue Valley International/Medford Airport. After the aircraft was parked at the gate, it was discovered to be missing an external panel. We’ll conduct a thorough examination of the plane and perform all the needed repairs before it returns to service. We’ll also conduct an investigation to better understand how this damage occurred."

United said the Boeing 737-800 had 139 passengers onboard the plane, with six crew members. The plane also did not declare an emergency while en route to Medford "as there was no indication of the damage during the flight," United said.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/united-airlines-san-francisco-medford-oregon-panel/5230027/

This is getting crazier by the day.

[question everything]

1. Loss of experienced personnel, from Miles O'Brien on PBS NewsHour

Miles O’Brien:

Yes, it's kind of all over the map, Geoff. You have cases where wheels are falling off. That could be attributed to maintenance, an aircraft taxing off a runway, probably pilot error.

An engine flame out, that's the manufacturer, CFM, that makes the engines. And then you have a 787 which had a precipitous fall between Australia and New Zealand. What drives that all together? It's hard to say, except I will say this. The aviation industry was clobbered by the pandemic. It lost experienced people in every quarter, on factory floors, in control towers, in cockpits, and the people that screw on the wheels to airplanes.

All those places lost experience during COVID, when people retired. And so this industry, which is raring and back, and people are flying, is struggling to keep up with all that. And it is worrisome.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/boeing-remains-under-scrutiny-amid-quality-control-issues

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. Are these incidents actually on the rise or is this another "shark attacks" type of deal?

[Zeitghost]

7. I suspect the latter

Like train derailments awhile back, this is the news topic of the day.

[Tree Lady]

3. Hubby and I saw the plane come in

Live in Medford and we don't get that many flights so hubby happened to mention it was united when we looked up, we were in a part of town that was easy to see it come in. Didn't notice anything wrong.

We only talking about it because of my kids flying to Seattle and thinking about problems with planes.

[yankee87]

4. WTF?

Until we hold the CEO responsible and put him in jail this is going to continue happening.

[kimbutgar]

5. When I read Boeing was moving manufacturing to South Carolina to save in labor costs I thought this

Would be a bad move because the labor force there is not as educated as in Washington state. It appears I wasn’t so wrong.

[republianmushroom]

6. If you find the panel or any other parts Please call Boeing hot line numbers

Panels are expensive. Thank you

[Sneederbunk]

8. Didn't need that anyway.