United Airlines Flight 1544 was forced to turn around en route to Las Vegas and make an emergency landing at Newark Airport on Tuesday, according to the Daily Mail. The 176 passengers and six crew initially departed from Newark Airport right before 6 a.m. The flight was heading to Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. The Port Authority said the plane was only in the air for an hour when it turned around due to an unnamed mechanical issue. “United flight 1544 to Las Vegas returned to Newark Liberty International Airport to address a possible mechanical issue,” United announced in a statement. “The flight landed safely, and all passengers deplaned normally at the gate. We have arranged for a different aircraft to take our customers to Las Vegas this morning.” The airline scheduled the flight to take off at 10:15 a.m. on Tuesday. This emergency landing comes after a slew of recent airline incidents, including a highly publicized tragedy in which an American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter in January, killing everyone on board.
