United Airlines plane from San Francisco to Oregon lands with exterior panel missing

MEDFORD, Ore. — A United Airlines Boeing 737-800 was found to be missing an exterior panel after it landed at Rogue Valley International Medford Airport in Oregon from San Francisco.

>> Read more trending news

United Flight 433 left the San Francisco airport just after 10 a.m. on Friday. According to FlightAware per The Associated Press, it landed just before noon.

The plane landed safely, Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport director Amber Judd said, according to the AP. The missing exterior panel was found while a post-flight inspection was conducted.

Judd said that operations at the airport were paused while crews searched for debris but none were found, the AP reported.

“After the aircraft was parked at the gate, it was discovered to be missing an external panel,” according to a statement from United obtained by KPIX.

It’s not clear when the plane may have lost the missing exterior panel or if it was missing before departure on Friday, the news outlet reported. About 139 passengers and six crew members were on the flight, the airline said.

“We’ll conduct a thorough examination of the plane and perform all the needed repairs before it returns to service,” the United statement said. “We’ll also conduct an investigation to better understand how this damage occurred.” An emergency declaration was not made because the damage was not found until after the flight.

Recently, United Airlines has been dealing with incidents with planes taking off from San Francisco, according to KGO-TV. One of the incidents was United Flight 35 where a tire fell off a Boeing 777 during takeoff. That plane landed in Los Angeles and then was diverted.

© 2024 Cox Media Group