The National Transportation Safety Board ( NTSB
) has issued a brief statement that it will investigate the incident involving a United Airlines Boeing 787-8, which was forced to return to Lagos, Nigeria, following “sudden aircraft movement.”

Sudden aircraft movement and injuries

In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, the NTSB said that it was investigating the January 24 incident involving a United Airlines
Boeing 787-8, registered as N27903, which was operating flight UA613 from Lagos Murtala Mohammed Airport
(LOS) to Washington Dulles International Airport
(IAD).

According to the NTSB, the aircraft experienced sudden movement, resulting in 38 injuries, a number confirmed by a statement by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) shortly after the event on January 24.

United Airlines Boeing 787-8 taxiing at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport AMS shutterstock_2568718701

Photo: kamilpetran | Shutterstock

“The incident occurred as the airplane was flying in Côte d’Ivoire airspace. The Bureau Enquêtes et Analyses of Côte d’Ivoire [BEA] delegated the investigation to the NTSB. A preliminary report will be published on the NTSB website in approximately 30 days.”

The International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Annex 13 provisions state that the preliminary report needs to be issued within 30 days of the event, while a final report should be published as soon as possible or within 12 months of the event following the completion of the investigation.

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6 Injured After United Airlines Boeing 787 Flight From Lagos Suffers Abrupt Altitude Drop

The same United Airlines aircraft had a similar issue earlier this week, with a rapid altitude drop prompting a diversion.

Returning to Lagos

Flightradar24 data showed that the incident’s aircraft departed Lagos at 00:19 local time (UTC +1) on January 24. As it crossed the airspaces of Benin, Togo, and Ghana, it climbed to an altitude of 36,000 feet (10,972) meters and continued towards Washington, DC.

However, as it was about to enter Liberia’s airspace, the aircraft turned back after experiencing a sudden drop in altitude with a vertical speed of -1,600 ft per minute. Around 30 minutes after initiating the turnback toward Lagos, the flight crew squawked 7700, indicating a general emergency onboard the aircraft.

The 787-8
landed in Lagos at 03:22, according to the FAAN’s statement. Out of the 245 passengers and 11 crew members, four passengers and two crew members sustained serious injuries, while 27 travelers and five crew members had minor injuries.

United Dulles to Lagos

Photo: United Airlines

In a statement to Simple Flying following the incident, United Airlines said that a technical issue and an unexpected aircraft movement prompted the turnback to Lagos, ruling out turbulence as the cause of the incident.

According to Flightradar24 flight schedules, the 787-8 has stayed in Nigeria since the incident. At the time of publishing, the airframe had no scheduled flights out of Lagos. On January 21, the same aircraft was forced to divert while flying from Lagos to Washington.

Then, as the widebody jet was overflying Senegal, it turned back toward the coast of the Gulf of Guinea. However, instead of landing back in Lagos, the pilots opted to divert to Accra Kotoka International Airport (ACC).

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Not the first sudden movement involving 787s

However, this was not the first incident where a 787
was involved in a sudden movement of the aircraft that had resulted in injuries onboard the aircraft. In March 2024, when a LATAM Airlines 787-9 was flying from Sydney Airport (SYD) to Auckland Airport (AKL) before crossing the Pacific Ocean toward Santiago International Airport (SCL), the aircraft experienced a sudden drop in altitude.

In April 2024, the Chilean Directorate General of Civil Aviation (Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil, DGCA) issued the preliminary report of the incident, pinpointing that during the flight, the captain’s seat moved inadvertently, resulting in the pilot being pushed into the aircraft’s yoke and in the sudden movement downward.

LATAM Airlines Boeing 787-9 departing FRA shutterstock_1439062988

Photo: Vytautas Kielaitis | Shutterstock

In August 2024, the Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA
) issued an airworthiness directive (AD) following the “uncommanded movement of the Captain’s seat in the forward direction that caused a rapid descent.” However, the regulator noted that Boeing reported four additional instances of uncommanded seat movements.

“Three of the incidents were due to loose forward/aft rocker switch caps located under the spring-loaded rocker switch cover guard on the back of the Captain’s and First Officer’s seats; the loose forward/aft rocker switch caps were the result of cracking or un-bonded or de-bonded caps. The other two incidents are under investigation.”

The directive’s effective date was August 21, 2024, mandating general visual inspections (GVI) of switch caps and switch cover assemblies within 30 days and a rocker switch cap pull test and/or seat marking for specific aircraft.

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