Summary

  • The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating an incident involving a United Airlines Airbus A320.
  • The aircraft, operating flight UA325 from BDL to DEN, lost engine parts as it took off from BDL.
  • The Airbus A320 safely returned to BDL after spending more than 30 minutes in the air.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has confirmed that a United Airlines Airbus A320 was forced to return to its origin airport on June 20, 2024. The regulator said that the flight crew reported an abnormal noise during the flight.

Incident at BDL

According to the FAA’s statement, the Airbus A320ceo, registered as N490UA, was forced to turn back to Windsor Locks Bradley International Airport (BDL) on June 20 because the flight crew reported an abnormal noise shortly after the aircraft took off from the airport. The FAA said that it would investigate the incident.

A United Airbus A320 just after take off.

Photo: AJ Packer | Shutterstock

Flightradar24 records showed that the United Airlines aircraft was operating flight UA325 from BDL to Denver International Airport (DEN). After it took off from BDL at 8:02 local time (UTC -4), the aircraft began turning north instead of west toward DEN and entered into a holding pattern to the northeast and south of BDL.

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The incident delayed the Chicago-bound flight by just under two hours.

An engine problem

According to air traffic control (ATC) archives provided by LiveATC, the pilots contacted ATC shortly after departure, saying that the aircraft had a number two engine problem. While the engine was running “fine,” according to the pilot monitoring (PM), the pilot stated that the aircraft would probably have to return to BDL after the flight crew had made some calls.

The pilot responded negatively when a controller asked whether the United Airlines flight crew wanted to declare an emergency. In a follow-up message from the ATC to the Airbus A320 pilots, the controller informed about foreign object debris (FOD) on the runway.

“United 325 I know you guys are still working on an issue, they did find aircraft parts on runway 24, so just a heads-up for you if you guys are still working on that. Runway 24 is currently closed, […] is working on cleaning up the debris.”

In addition to runway 06/24, BDL has runway 15/33 for its operations. Nevertheless, in response to the controller’s message, the United Airlines pilot said that the aircraft planned to return to BDL. However, ATC informed that it would take some time for the airport’s crews to clean up runway 24, which is longer than runway 15/33.

United Airlines Airbus A320 at AUS shutterstock_2417937695

Photo: lorenzatx | Shutterstock

Shortly after, the United Airlines aircraft said that it would declare an emergency, with the pilots informing ATC that there were 129 people onboard the aircraft, with five hours and 20 minutes of fuel inside the fuel tanks of the Airbus A320.

“Everything is running fine. The engines are within parameters. We are way over landing weight, so we are not in a huge hurry to come back, but we will […] on what we are doing.”

While the pilot reiterated that the engines were running fine, they said that they did not know whether they hit a bird, noting that there was sound shortly after V1, which is the maximum speed at which the pilot still has time to cancel the takeoff run.

Later on, a controller told the crew of flight UA325 that the airport’s crews found a piece of sheet metal on the runway, but they were unable to determine the source of the FOD, which was from the aircraft’s engine. The flight crew requested emergency services to be standing by when the Airbus A320 would land at BDL. A United Airlines spokesperson confirmed the incident to Simple Flying, stating the following:

Our flight from Bradley International Airport in Hartford to Denver International Airport returned safely to Bradley this morning to address an issue with one engine, and a portion of the engine’s sound-dampening outer liner was found on the runway.

Eventually, the Airbus A320ceo returned back to BDL, landing at the airport at 8:47. After the aircraft had landed at its origin airport, it proceeded to taxi to the gate area at BDL. Flightradar24 indicated that the United Airlines single-aisle aircraft has had no scheduled flights since the incident on June 20.

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Scrutinizing United Airlines’ processes

Meanwhile, the FAA has scrutinized United Airlines operations and its processes after the carrier had suffered numerous incidents throughout the first few months in 2024. The regulator’s audit resulted in the airline being unable to add new aircraft or routes to its operations.

United Airlines aircraft at IAD shutterstock_2408106989

Photo: RinatSh | Shutterstock

At a briefing in late May, Mike Whitaker, the Administrator of the FAA, stated that United Airlines had cleared the audit and that it was able to grow its operations once again. According to Whitaker, the airline had already taken delivery of some aircraft, some of which replaced retired aircraft, while others were added to grow its capacity.

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