To the untrained eye, this looks like it’ll take more than just some duct tape to fix…
Continue reading: Ouch: United 767 Sustains Serious Damage From Rough Landing
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Lots of incidents involving 767's recently!
Oh, and, it's good to hear that they discovered the damage after landing, and not 7 flights later like the recent A320 tailstrike.
Given that the plane was likely going to be retired in the next 2-3 years, I think United will choose to scrap the plane rather than spend the money to fix it. Delta still planned on using the 757 for a longer period of time.
Due to United's unreliability at the moment, it won't hurt the airline to have one less plane 😉
So which row of seats did the buckle happen at? Can anyone tell from the pics?
767 had a good run but it's time to go. UA has had a lot of issues with them this year and the 321/Max replacements can't come soon enough.
This particular airframe is cursed. Before this incident it also had an engine fire operating UA129 IAH-GIG. But also many more incidents. They definitely need to retire her ASAP.
With no weather, you can almost always expect a wide body to land smooth as silk. Obviously this pilot was trying to fly into the ground and at the last moment figured this was a big wide body, cockpit higher off the ground than the Cessna 172 he is use to flying. Really no excuse from the cockpit. Again as in some of the previous comments, 767 age is really not relevant. You can tear up a brand new plane just as easy. Typical American union pilot wages, paying a lot more and getting a lot less. Go figure.
you're the type of guy to get mad when a quarterback throws a single incompletion
I am supposed to be on this same flight on a 763 on Friday. Curious to see if there is an aircraft change and how UA handles it.
Vertical speed wasn't anything egregious, 760fpm....forgot to flare. Ouch is right. same flight day after was 769fpm
Almost flying into the ground and football incompletion. Great comparison...geez!
first, the Delta 757 involved in that incident is younger than the United 767 by 5 years and the incident happened 4 years ago - so the 757 had a lot more potential life left in it.
Second, Airline pilot forums was discussing this issue long before the first tweet (or X) from Jon whatever his name is
It's odd that there were no social media reports from anyone on the flight given the severity of the landing and damages.
The only time you should ever expect a wide body to land as smooth as silk is if the plane is only a third full , light on fuel , and no cargo.
Agree that 'jon' account is a bit extra but it did cite the airliner forum
From what I read some speculation it wasn't so much a hard main gear landing, but a hard nose gear hit that causes damage in that spot. So either planted straight on the nose gear or too hard of a rotation down after the main gear.
However, from the customer pov, the longer range narrow bodies are a really shitty replacement for the 767. I have come to despise 3x3 seating in economy, and try to avoid it at all costs. The 767 with 2-3-2 in coach was very nice, especially for longer flights.
The 787 with 3-3-3 economy seating also is absolutely terrible. The A330 at 2-4-2 is a million times preferable..
I see no reference to Airline Pilot Forums which is a pilot chat forum.
Aviation Herald is an accident/incident focused cite
Agree the 767 is significantly better than the narrowbodies or 777 for long flights. For upgrade space, for families, for solo travelers, everyone. But it's over, sadly.
"A good landing is one you walk away from. An excellent landing is one where you can use the plane again."
Good landing!
United is retiring the 767. This will not be fix. It will be used for spare parts and a write off.
Time to sell it to AirIndia; they will have it back in the air as soon as the new paint dries.
I am one of those who will be sad to see 767s go over the next few years. One of DLs got likely totaled last week in Rome, now one of UAs likely done as well - only brings the end closer. It was a good run.
This could have resulted from a small microburst and maybe the flight recorder will help. The damage does not look that bad but I doubt it will "buff out" and I think the FAA frowns on the use of bondo as a fix.
The FO was a new hire, I would be interested to hear what his/her actual experience is. How experienced is the Captain. As pilots we have all had a few hard landings but experience matters. With the extream pilot shortage raising the mandatory pilot retirement age to 67 to keep experience on the Flight Deck is a necessity for safety.
Good riddance to another 767! The tranverse loading must have been immense to cause buckling like that near the joint connecting the forward and central fuselages and the wing fairings. Damn!
Seems like United has decided that damaging their planes is the easiest way to retire them.
Ha! No one is as thrifty as the American businessman. United will have this aircraft back in the air as soon as it pays off all the signatories. All bow down to the shareholders!
Lmao!! Maybe a few more years at this rate of "retirement" will force United to modernize their fleet. Then they may actually be competitive with the hard products offered on global airlines instead of basically a shit cabin and a horrible experience United calls service.
Not a pilot, just interested-- No weather, but Houston has been hot (I live here). Is air just on top of the runway less dense than the last 1000 feet of approach, causing a sudden increase in the descent into the pavement?
Word on the street is that United is growing too fast and is having trouble getting experienced pilots
The 757 / 767 was a great pair. They had the same avionics on introduction, which made it extremely cost-effective for airlines in regards to training... I worked at a place who operated a convertible 757 / 767 simulator. We loaded a different flight model, that was about it...
I had a united flight land at ABIA (AUS) recently and had to say whew when we came to a stop. Because of high/gusty winds they came in a little fast and landed hard and then stopped at the very last moment. Like I could see the fenceline at the end of the runway (heading north) out the window just beyond the end of the runway from my window. The plane just paused for like 20 seconds instead of smoothly turning left as usual and I swear it was the pilots also going "whew". So, hard landings happen though in this case it was with no bad weather, but glad no one got hurt. Am surprised with that kind of damage (that must have been inside the plane) no one posted anything online though.
This happened a few years ago to a United 757 at EWR. Same thing, a new hire pilot. The poor 75 hit nosewheel first and the strut was pushed up into the fuselage.
United scrapped it. There was never any word whether the new hire kept his job or not. There was an instructor captain too but he couldn’t react quickly enough.
Shit happens to everyone, but let’s hope this wasn’t a DEI hire.
Looks like the damage extends over the top of the fuselage, just ahead of the wing attachment, but is less severe over the bottom of the fuselage.
My guess: a very hard strike on the nose landing gear, forcing the front section of the fuselage upward. Then (as the main gear contacted the runway) the front section straightened again, and at the top of the fuselage, the most-stressed and most-folded section of the skin tore.
On my last 4 united flights 3 of them had rough landings and 1 was good. It could be that the new hires are not getting trained correctly. Glad no one was injured.
Yes, that can definitely happen. When it does, the aircraft just seems to fall through the flare. But, I don't think that could explain this.
United lowered the requirements for its new pilots with the AVIATE Academy, and is also on track with lower requirements for with Calibrate program for its future Aircraft Technicians as well. SAFE TO SAY.
United lowered the requirements for its new pilots with the AVIATE Academy, and is also on track with lower requirements with the Calibrate program for its future Aircraft Technicians as well. SAFE TO SAY.
Yes, this is fixable, and UAL maintenance could do it... but its down to the bean counters, there are no more "legacy" united directors and VPs , the entire company is run by people with business degrees. the current state of UAL maintenance program sides towards scrapping A/C
This damage isn’t bad, although it is referred to as a “broken back”. These “broken backs” are quite common on the 767-300 when experiencing hard landings. Depending on part availability Boeing can have this airplane back in the air in 2, 3 months tops. The only reason to scrap it is if United decides it is cost prohibitive.
And when Air India has much younger Etihad, Singapore Airlines jets too choose from (and bigger, much more relevant for them), I doubt they'd have any interest in these tired planes. Even DL 772s are fill-ins.
Delta's 767 that got pelted by hail on departure from MXP is set up for a ferry flight back to the US on Saturday
Sand it down. A little bondo. New paint. Good as new. What's the beef??!! We used to say: "If it flew in, it'll fly out".....
A diversity hire that was riddled with checkride failures from a previous company and over 6x the amount of necessary ioe.
it is being repaired. Boeing is already scheduled to do the repair at IAH. With no middle market replacements the 767s will fly until the fall from the sky.
Too much emphasis on DEI now instead of excellence in flying. Not to mention, you can't ask if the pilot has been inoculated and boosted, which may cause sudden death in the air. As long as there is a road to my destination, I'll be driving, thank you very much
An inexperienced female pilot landed this jet. Hard-landed it that is. That's a fact. And no, it was not repairable. Common Gordon? Common? No they are not; not at this level of damage. Nice try. Bottom line, she was very inexperienced and as my son who is a pilot out west told me, she was hyper-spaced into the captain position of this 767 in less than a year, when white male pilot would take over 2. I agree 100% with Katie below.
Navy pilots plant the main gear for the tail hook to grab a wire, they don't plant the nose.
This aircraft has now been repaired and returned to service (which shows you how little some of the commenters know.)
I’m amazed by the ignorance of those who seem to think that the sex of the pilot was a factor in the incident.