Oops: Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 787 Diverts To LAX Twice In A Row

While diversions due to mechanical issues aren’t that rare, two back-to-back diversions of the same flight isn’t something you see every day.

Hawaiian Dreamliner has unlucky flight departing LAX

On Saturday, July 19, 2025, Hawaiian Airlines flight HA1 was scheduled to operate from Los Angeles (LAX) to Honolulu (HNL). The routine 2,556-mile flight ordinarily departs at 8:30AM and arrives at 11:05AM (local time). Unfortunately that’s not how this particular flight played out.

The four-year-old Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner with the registration code N780HA took off at 9:03AM local time, just a bit behind schedule. It climbed up to 38,000 feet, and for roughly 1hr20min, made its way west across the Pacific, toward Hawaii.

However, a mechanical issue arose, so the decision was made to return to LAX. The plane landed there at 11:43AM, around 2hr40min after it first departed.

Maintenance boarded the aircraft, and the mechanical issue was addressed, so the crew was ready to give the flight a second try.

At 1:15PM, after the aircraft had been on the ground for around 90 minutes, a second takeoff was performed, as the crew seemingly thought that the mechanical issue had been fixed. This time around, the plane climbed up to 21,000 feet, and within 15 minutes of takeoff, the decision was made to return to LAX once again.

This time, the plane landed at LAX at 1:53PM, around 38 minutes after it first departed.

At that point, the flight was canceled. We know there was a mechanical issue, but it’s not clear what exactly the problem was. The plane is still on the ground at LAX, though it seems that it’s scheduled to fly back to Hawaii today. We’ll see how that plays out.

Stuff like this happens, frustrating as it may be

Of course no one heading to Hawaii on vacation wants to start their trip with two diversions and a canceled flight. Some people will say “well why didn’t they fix the plane correctly before flying it a second time?”

While that’s a fair thought to have, this gets at the complexity of aircraft, and the airline industry’s heavy focus on safety. Presumably they thought everything was fixed before attempting the second flight, but sometimes the same warning will display more than once.

This likely wasn’t any life or death situation, but instead, it’s just a function of how you always want to err on the side of caution, and you certainly don’t want to fly over an open body of water with anything that could become an issue.

While I haven’t experienced back-to-back diversions, I have experienced back-to-back aborted takeoffs, which is a similar concept. During the takeoff roll, the pilots reportedly received a message that the cargo door wasn’t closed correctly, so takeoff was aborted.

It was determined that this was just an issue with the sensor, rather than the cargo door as such. So maintenance boarded the aircraft, and they thought they had resolved the problem. We then attempted a second takeoff, only for the same error to come up again. So stuff happens, and as frustrating as it is, it’s nothing to be worried about.

Bottom line

A Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 787 diverted to LAX twice in a row, for the same mechanical issue. It’s not clear what the cause of the problem was, but the end result was that passengers had two takeoffs and landings, only to end up where they started. Hopefully the plane has better luck making its way across the Pacific today!

What do you make of this Hawaiian Airlines Dreamliner diversion?