A United Airlines flight made an abrupt about-turn 40 minutes after setting out across the Atlantic due to issues with the spoiler.
Passengers aboard the Boeing 787-9 reported hearing “noticeable vibrations” around half an hour after departing Newark Liberty International Airport in New York for Cape Town in South Africa, aviation news outlet Simple Flying reported Wednesday.
An indication light on the flight deck signaled a problem with a spoiler—flaps on the wings that slow the plane during landing—and the plane returned to Newark, according to a spokesman for United Airlines. The plane dumped fuel reserves on its return as a precaution and landed at “higher-than-normal speed.”
The plane then remained grounded for 37 hours before returning to normal scheduled service as of Wednesday morning.
The incident comes just weeks after the tragic Air India crash in Ahmedabad claimed the lives of all aboard another Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft.
Simple Flying adds the same United Airlines plane that encountered difficulty on Sunday—and which, with less than five years in service, remains relatively new—also suffered a fault in its electronic cooling system earlier in July, again prompting a return to Newark Airport after less than an hour into its route to Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport in India.
The latest incident in turn follows just days after another United Airlines Boeing 787 experienced an engine failure just minutes after takeoff from Washington Dulles International Airport en route to Munich in Germany.
In a statement issued to The Independent, the airline confirmed that the flight had been forced to make an abrupt return “to address a mechanical issue” and that alternate travel arrangements were made “to take customers to their destination as soon as possible.”
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the plane experienced an issue with one of the wings’ spoilers.
