Days After Alaska Airline Door Scare, Another US Carrier Reports Similar Incident

A Chicago-bound United Airlines plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Tampa International Airport on Wednesday after a door indicator light turned on. According to flight-tracking site FlightAware,  United Flight 2434 took off from Sarasota-Bradenton International at 3:42 p.m. and landed at the airport in Tampa at 4:35 p.m. The plane was headed to Chicago when the light started blinking and forced pilots to alert dispatchers, following which the plane was rerouted to Tampa. The plane remained there for a while before taking off for Chicago again. 

The aircraft carrying 123 passengers and five crew members made the emergency landing ”as a precaution this afternoon to address a possible mechanical issue,” a United spokesperson told The New York Post.

”You don’t ignore lights, and you don’t attempt to reset them and say, ‘Well, maybe it’s just a sensor,” said John Cox, an aviation expert, and a former captain.

”There’s a procedure that you follow, that is in the checklist, the abnormal checklist, and you follow that procedure, and you go ahead and you pick a diversion airport and go land there,” Mr Cox added.

United Airlines is one of the two American companies that operates Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners, like the one that lost its door plug mid-air. Notably, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 9 MAX faced an emergency on January 6 after one of its doors blew open mid-air. 

The door plug tore off the left side of the following takeoff from Portland, Oregon, en route to Ontario, California, forcing pilots to turn back and land safely with all 171 passengers and six crew on board. Images posted on social media showed a gaping hole where the side panel had blown out, with emergency oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling.

Meanwhile, airlines and safety bodies around the world grounded some versions of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 jets pending inspections, with dozens of flights cancelled after the incident. The FAA has grounded 171 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes ”until operators complete enhanced inspections which include both left and right cabin door exit plugs, door components, and fasteners.”