Passengers onboard a recent United Airlines
flight between Los Angeles and London Heathrow were unexpectedly diverted to Chicago O’Hare on September 26. AvHerald reported
that the captain’s displays went blank as the flight management computers entered a degraded mode.

Turned back over the Hudson Bay

UA231 departed Los Angeles International Airport
on Thursday, September 26, at 13:37, almost an hour behind its scheduled departure time of 12:55. The flight rose to its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet and quickly headed northeast towards Canada and, eventually, Europe. However, as it passed over Manitoba and Hudson Bay, the captain’s primary flight and navigation displays entered a degraded mode.

ua231

Given the conditions and flying with limited capabilities, the captain declared a mayday and diverted to Chicago O’Hare, United Airlines HQ, where the carrier has extensive maintenance facilities.

Flight data and schedules were sourced in this article from Flightradar24

UA231 diverted to Chicago

Using alternative navigation tools and vectors, the captain and the rest of the crew on the flight deck were able to navigate back to Chicago, passing over Ontario, Lake Superior, Michigan, and Wisconsin before landing at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), landing at 21:51 local time.

United Airlines Boeing 787-9 on final approach

Photo: Kevin Hackert | Shutterstock

Affected passengers were rebooked onto a replacement aircraft, which departed from Chicago at 01:24 on the morning of September 27, arriving at London Heathrow Airport
at 15:02 later that day. The replacement service was operated by N13013 (serial number 40931), a Boeing 787-10 that joined the United fleet in March 2020.

The return flight for the aircraft was then subsequently delayed, seeing N13013 operating as UA263 from London to Denver, Colorado. Departing at 17:08 instead of 14:50, but making up time en route to arrive in Colorado just 75 minutes behind schedule at 18:50 (vs 17:35).

Nine-year-old N27958

The aircraft that experienced the technical issues, was a United Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner with registration N27958 (serial number 36406) that can accommodate up to 271 passengers onboard. Having joined the fleet in September 2015, the nine-year-old aircraft is frequently deployed on some of the airline’s most iconic routes. After the incident, N27958 remained on the apron at ORD for two days to thoroughly review its systems and returned to service on September 28, operating as UA845 to Sao Paulo
.

N29975 United Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner

Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

This most recent United Airlines incident came just days before the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) confirmed its intentions to drop a safety probe into the Star Alliance
carrier. This follows a string of safety incidents, including a United 737 MAX that saw its landing gear collapse on the runway at Houston on March 8.

Despite the incident occurring over Hudson Bay, the FAA confirmed that it was not continuing an investigation with the carrier and reiterated that it found no significant safety issues.

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