SAN FRANCISCO — A recent series of mishaps involving United Airlines aircraft continued Friday when an external panel was found missing following a flight from San Francisco International Airport to Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport.
Flight 433 landed safely at the airport in Oregon, its scheduled destination, a United Airlines spokesperson said in an email. No emergency was declared because the damage was discovered after the Boeing 737-800 was parked at the gate.
“We’ll conduct a thorough examination of the plane and perform all needed repairs before it returns to service,” the spokesperson said. “We’ll also conduct an investigation to better understand how this damage occurred.”
The aircraft was carrying 139 passengers and six crewmembers, according to the spokesperson.
The U.S.-based carrier has been hit by a series of mishaps in recent days. Many of them have involved aircraft headed either to or from SFO.
On Thursday, an aircraft flying from Dallas to San Francisco experienced a hydraulic leak. Another incident happened Monday, when a maintenance issue forced a flight to return to Sydney two hours into its nearly 14-hour journey to San Francisco.
Then on March 8, an aircraft rolled off a runway at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, while another flight headed to Mexico City from San Francisco had to be redirected to Los Angeles after it experienced an issue with its hydraulic system.
Additional incidents happened on March 7, when an aircraft bound for Osaka lost a wheel after taking off from SFO, and on March 4, when an engine failed during a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco. Also on March 4, a flight from Houston to Fort Myers had to turn back after an engine ingested bubble wrap and burst into flames.
The incidents involved aircraft manufactured by Airbus and Boeing. The latter is currently under scrutiny for quality and safety issues.