While this obviously pales in comparison to the Air Canada Jazz CRJ-900 accident we just saw, a United Boeing 737 had a very strange incident, whereby the pilots tried to take off on the edge of the runway. After rejecting the takeoff, the pilots didn’t even have the aircraft inspected, but just headed right back to the runway, to take off again.
In this post:
United plane has botched takeoff at Chicago O’Hare Airport
The Aviation Herald has the details of an incident happened a little after 8PM on Thursday, March 19, 2026. It involves United Airlines flight UA1394, scheduled to operate from Chicago O’Hare Airport (ORD) to San Antonio Airport (SAT). The 1,041-mile flight was operated by a Boeing 737-700 with the registration code N15712.
The plane taxied out to runway 10L, where it was doing a midfield takeoff from taxiway DD, around 3,000 feet down the runway. However, rather than aligning with the runway centerline, the pilots instead lined up with the runway edge lights on the left side.
They clearly eventually realized their mistake, and ended up rejecting their takeoff at around 60 knots. The plane vacated the runway around 2,300 feet later, 5,300 feet down the runway. They then just taxied to the runway again, and took off just minutes later. The plane landed in San Antonio 2hr15min after takeoff, without further incident.
In a report, the FAA stated that the aircraft struck the runway and taxiway lights while entering the runway. VASAviation has a visualization of what happened, plus air traffic control audio.
The handling of this incident seems very strange
On the surface, an incident like this is puzzling, though in fairness, most of us have never been at the controls of a 737 at O’Hare at night, so maybe there’s something we don’t understand.
Looking at the factors here, it’s worth pointing out that both the centerline and edge lights of the runway are white. Still, you’d see three “rows” of white lights, and if you want to be on the centerline, you’d want your wheels to be along the center white lights. In other words, you’d want to make sure that there are white lights both to the left and right of you, in addition to in front of you. How two airline pilots got that wrong is confusing.
What I find most concerning about this incident is how the pilots seemingly pretended that nothing happened, operations continued as normal, and the plane just took off minutes after the initial incident.
While runway lights are in theory designed to not break if run over, and to not cause damage to aircraft, it’s still a best practice to both inspect the aircraft’s gear, and to perform an inspection of the runway, to make sure there’s no debris. After all, runway debris has been the cause of some accidents, including the one fatal Concorde crash.
It’s concerning that the pilots seemingly didn’t communicate what happened, and felt comfortable just immediately taking off again, despite what is a pretty major incident. Even from a psychological perspective, you would assume that pilots aren’t in a great mental state after realizing the mistake they’ve made, and would want a second to cool off.
Bottom line
A United Boeing 737 attempted a takeoff roll while lined up with the edge of the runway at Chicago O’Hare. Once the pilots realized their mistake, they aborted the takeoff, and that was at around 60 knots. They then immediately headed back to the runway, and took off minutes later, without any sort of inspection of the aircraft or of the runway.
What do you make of this United 737 takeoff incident?
If the pilot was anything other than a white straight male . . .
This is the reason why the unions are fighting against proposed longer CVR recordings.
Small note on the runway edge light colors. At my airport and, as far as I’m aware ANY instrument runway, the runway edge lights are white all the way from the line-up/approach end, up until the last 2,000 feet remaining, where they then turn yellow. So had they lined up full length, they’d have seen all white as well. The lenses are bi-directional so will be a different color based on which direction you are...
Small note on the runway edge light colors. At my airport and, as far as I’m aware ANY instrument runway, the runway edge lights are white all the way from the line-up/approach end, up until the last 2,000 feet remaining, where they then turn yellow. So had they lined up full length, they’d have seen all white as well. The lenses are bi-directional so will be a different color based on which direction you are facing them. So those edge lights would have been white all the way until the final 2,000 feet remaining.
that is correct. And you wouldn't be starting a takeoff roll in the last 2000 feet.
Ben's point is valid that not being in the middle of 3 rows of white lights should be concerning
Yes, agreed it is concerning. Just pointing out that the comment about the first couple thousand feet having yellow edge lights as a “caution” is not correct. Seems like these pilots could have made the exact same error had they lined up full length as well.
Also a potentially unusual United flight 786 from O'Hare on Sunday, 3/22 - flight from ORD to BTV, aborted landing right before touchdown for unclear reasons, started flying to BDL, landed in Albany instead, let some passengers off, flew back to BTV and landed in basically the same conditions. Strange things are afoot at the Circle K?
Was on this flight. Pilot said something was on the runway which is why we rejected. Super concerning. Rest of the flight was uneventful.
"Something" was on the runway... yeah, the runway lights. Could it be the pilots were actually not aware that they were aligned wrong, and actually believed "something" was on the runway?
Honestly believe they likely did not realize which frankly makes it even more concerning. We were sat in FC so probably did not feel as much of the impact of lights hitting the landing gear as we were quite far in front of the main gear.
Does anyone else worry about United's safety culture? Between occasional near misses like this one, and constant maintenance issues, they make me uneasy.
The pilots may not have realized that they had knocked out runway lights although they might have heard some unusual noises, likely from the mains rather than the nose wheel.
The question, then, was the runway taken out of service when the next aircraft realized that runway lights were missing?
Both plane and runway ought to be shut down for inspection .
No one has taken Tim out of service.
Even when we all notice light bulbs are missing in his mind.
alert gets it.
Eskimo, as usual doesn't.
(this is when you are supposed to say that "if it was automated, this wouldn't have happened)
Meh, at least they got that '100 years Magnolia vanilla pudding' up-front, amirite?
They did the same thing as the AA 777 years ago that entered a runway DL was taking off on at JFK. By continuing the flight, the CVR will be overwritten and they now control the narrative of what happened on the flight deck.Mistakes of this magnitude usually require a crew to return to the gate and pull the CVR circuit breaker to preserve data. But let’s be honest, do you think someone is going...
They did the same thing as the AA 777 years ago that entered a runway DL was taking off on at JFK. By continuing the flight, the CVR will be overwritten and they now control the narrative of what happened on the flight deck.Mistakes of this magnitude usually require a crew to return to the gate and pull the CVR circuit breaker to preserve data. But let’s be honest, do you think someone is going to preserve potentially incriminating evidence against themselves? No. Example like this are why the 25hr rule for CVR recordings is important.
Flight ought to have been cancelled , and the pax taken to a tent and cot area to wait for inspection . Cannot be too careful .
"Gretchen, stop trying to make 'fetch' happen, it's NOT going to happen!"
In your case, it's "tent and cot."
You can keep saying it, but it's not going to become a thing, no matter how hard you try.
Thanks for the grin ORD, is that what they do in Corps aviation? …. :-)
That's how we do it in Chicago. Live with it and suck it up.
lmao idk if this is supposed to be funny or not but this is objectively hilarious