United Airlines Boeing 767 fuselage wrinkled as nose-gear bounced during landing at Houston Airport

United Airlines - Boeing 767-300ER (N641UA) - Alex Peake - AirTeamImages.com 

Just about a week ago, the NTSB released a statement regarding a United flight that suffered a rough landing, in turn causing damage to the 767-300ER. The incident, which took place on July 29th, 2023, was a United Airlines flight that was arriving at Houston George Bush International Airport (KIAH). The flight originated from Newark Liberty International Airport (KEWR) and is a regular scheduled route between the two airports.

United Airlines flight UAL702 from Newark to Houston 

All was in order during the departure, cruise, and descent. It came down to the landing where the issue was raised. As this is still an ongoing investigation, the current statements are still undergoing and may be subject to change at the time of writing this article. 

As the aircraft made its final approach, no issues were reported. The pilot flying was the First Officer, and the captain was the observer. After the aircraft made a normal touchdown with its rear landing gear, the FO controlled the yoke to reduce the load on the nose of the aircraft before touchdown. However, the nose gear touched down with “abnormal force.” 

The aircraft bounced, causing the FO to retract by pulling on the control yoke to keep the aircraft from encountering a second abnormal impact. The Speed breaks then deployed along with auto breaks, which in turn caused yet another impact into the runway. Reports from the NTSB reported that the nose gear touched down “with a gravitational force equivalent (g) of 1.4 g and then bounced back up.” 

Source: NTSB

Although none of the passengers or crew were hurt during the incident, substantial damage was reported by on-site techs to the crown of the upper fuselage. Since then, the 767-300ER in question remains at KIAH currently. Once more information develops on this story from the NTSB, we will be sure to report on it. 

This blog post was written by AirNav RadarBox in collaboration with Luke S., Aviation Photographer/ journalist Founder of Skiesnbeyond LLC. 

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