A United Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing after a light came on indicating an “open door.”
United Airlines Flight 2434 (UA2434) departed Sarasota Bradenton International Airport around 3:42 p.m. Wednesday for Chicago and made an emergency landing at Tampa International Airport at 4:35 p.m., according to Flightaware.com.
“You don’t ignore lights, and you don’t attempt to reset them and say, ‘Well, maybe it’s just a sensor,'” John Cox, a former captain and aviation expert, told WBTW News.
Cox added that though it wasn’t surprising that the flight with 123 passengers and five crew members had made an emergency landing, getting an “open door” indicator doesn’t happen often.
“That’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,” Cox told the outlet.
Cox added that once you pick a location to divert to, pilots need to “advise air traffic control” along with the airline company so they can “have a gate” and maintenance ready.
The emergency landing of United Airlines Flight 2434 comes a week after Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 made an emergency landing after a window section blew out mid-flight at 16,000 feet after losing a door plug.
In response to the Alaska Airlines incident, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the “temporary grounding” of more than 100 Boeing 737 Max-9 aircrafts globally. The United Airlines flight was an Airbus A319.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during a meeting on Wednesday that he would not put a time frame on when Boeing’s fleet of 737 Max-9 aircrafts would be ready.
“I have confidence in any aircraft cleared by the FAA,” Buttigieg said. “Every plane they deliver to an airline, every plane that goes in the sky needs to be 100 percent safe. They need to be able to demonstrate that, which means finding and fixing anything related to this issue.”