United Airlines plane crashes

The following are significant events involving the airline or its subsidiares. The numbered events are those involving at least one airline passenger death where the aircraft flight had a direct or indirect role, and where at least one of the dead passengers was not a stowaway, hijacker, or saboteur. Only events since 1970 are included.

1. 8 December 1972; United Air Lines 737-200; N9031U, flight 553; Midway Airport, Chicago: The aircraft had been on a scheduled domestic flight from National Airport near Washington, DC to Midway Airport in Chicago, IL. During approach, the crew allowed the airspeed to deteriorate and the aircraft to stall and lose altitude. The crew initiated a missed approach and had increased thrust and retracted the landing gear, but the aircraft crashed into a residential area and caught fire. Three of the six crew and 40 of the 55 passengers were killed. Two people on the ground were also killed.
   Boeing 737 plane crashes
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2. 28 December 1978; United Air Lines DC8; N8082U, f light 173; Portland, OR: This was a scheduled domestic flight from Denver, CO to Portland, OR. After the landing gear was lowered, there were several indications of a landing gear problem, including unusual noises and no indication that one of the landing gear had deployed properly. The crew went into a holding pattern while investigating the problem. The aircraft ran out of fuel while holding for landing and crashed in a residential area. Two of the eight crew members and eight of the 181 passengers were killed. No one on the ground was injured or killed.
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   31 March 1986; United Air Lines 767-200; N609UA; San Francisco, CA: Shortly after departing San Francisco, the fuel supply to the engines were inadvertently deactivated by the crew during climb at about 3,000 feet. The crew was able to restart the engines and returned to the departure airport. A contributing cause was physical impairment of the pilot in command due to hypoglycemia. None of the 192 crew members and passengers were injured.
   Boeing 767 plane crashes

3. 24 February 1989; United Air Lines 747-100; N4713U; flight 811; near Hawaii: The aircraft was on a scheduled international flight from Honolulu, HI to Auckland, New Zealand. About 16 minutes after takeoff, when the aircraft was climbing through about 22,000 feet, the forward cargo door on the right side of the aircraft blew out and the resulting explosive decompression led to the loss of parts of the fuselage and the cabin interior, including a number of seats and passengers. Some of the ejected debris damaged the two right side engines, and the crew had to shut them down. The crew was able to return to Honolulu and land about 14 minutes after the decompression. All 18 crew members survived, but nine of the 337 passengers were killed.
   Boeing 747 plane crashes
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4. 19 July 1989; United Air Lines DC10; N1819U; flight 232; Sioux City, USA: While in cruise on a scheduled flight from Denver, CO to Chicago, IL, engine two had an uncontained failure. The failure, which was due by an undetected crack in the engine's fan disk, also damaged hydraulic lines led to a loss of all three hydraulic systems. The flight control systems were powered by the hydraulic system, and as a result were inoperative for the rest of the flight. The crew maneuvered the aircraft to a crash landing at the Sioux City airport using differential thrust on the two remaining engines to control the aircraft. One of the 11 crew members and 110 of the 285 passengers were killed.
   DC10 plane crashes
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5. 26 December 1989; United Express (NPA) BAe Jetstream 31; N410UE, flight 2415; Pasco, WA: The aircraft was on a scheduled domestic flight from Yakima, WA to Pasco, WA and was approaching the airport around 10:30 pm that night. The crew executed an excessively steep and unstabilzied ILS approach. That approach, along with improper air traffic control commands and aircraft icing, caused the aircraft to stall and crash short of the runway. Both crew members and all four passengers were killed.
   Jetsteram plane crashes

6. 3 March 1991; United Air Lines 737-200; N999UA, flight 585; near Colorado Springs, CO: This was a scheduled domestic flight from Denver, CO to Colorado Springs, CO. During the approach, the aircraft departed from controlled flight and crashed about four miles from the airport. All five crew members and 20 passengers were killed. The NTSB determined that the probable cause was the movement of the rudder in a direction opposite to what was commanded by the pilots due to failure of the rudder's main power control unit.
   Boeing 737 plane crashes
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   NTSB Accident Report

7. 7 January 1994; United Express (Atlantic Coast Airlines); N304UE, flight 6291; Jetstream 41; Columbus, OH: The captain initiated the approach at high speed and crossed the final approach fix without first having the airplane properly configured for a stabilized ILS approach. The airplane stalled and crashed 1.3 miles (2.1 km) short of the runway. All three crew members and two of the five passengers were killed.
   Jetsteram plane crashes

8. 19 November 1996; United Express (Great Lakes Aviation) Beech 1900; N87GL; flight 5925; Quincy, IL: Just after landing, the Beech 1900 was struck by a twin engine Beech King Air that was departing on an intersecting runway. Both crew members and all 10 passengers on the Beech 1900 were killed as were the two occupants of the King Air. The airport did not have a control tower.
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   Beech 1900 plane crashes

9. 28 December 1997; United Air Lines 747-100; N4723U; flight 826; over Pacific Ocean near Japan: The aircraft was on a scheduled international flight from Tokyo, Japan to Honolulu, HI and encountered severe turbulence during cruise about two hours after departing Japan. The crew returned to Tokyo without further incident. All 19 crew members survived, and one of the 374 passengers was killed.
   Boeing 747 plane crashes

   4 March 2001; United Air Lines 767-300; N666UA; flight 42; near Kona, HI: The aircraft was on a scheduled domestic flight from Kahului, HI to Los Angeles, CA. The aircraft experienced a dual engine power loss while climbing through 24,000 feet. According to the FAA, the crew had performed a precautionary shutdown on one engine due to fuel mismanagement, and the second engine shut down due to fuel starvation. The crew was able to restart both engines and divert to the airport at Kona, HI. None of the 250 passengers and crew on board were injured.
   Boeing 767 plane crashes

10. 11 September 2001; United Airlines 767; N612UA; flight 175; New York, NY: The aircraft was on a scheduled domestic flight from Boston, MA to Los Angeles, CA when it was hijacked and flown into one of the World Trade Center Towers. Another jet, an American Airlines 767, was hijacked and crashed into the other tower. Both towers later collapsed. All nine crew members, 51 passengers, and five hijackers were killed, as were nearly 3,000 people on the ground.
    Boeing 767 plane crashes
    Attack on New York and Washington
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11. 11 September 2001; United Airlines 757; N591UA; flight 93; near Shanksville, PA: The aircraft was on a flight from Newark, NJ to San Francisco, CA when it was hijacked. The hijackers apparently intended to fly the aircraft to the Washington, DC area in order to crash the aircraft into an unspecified target. However, on the way to Washington, DC, some of the passengers became aware of the likely intentions of the hijackers and attempted to commandeer the aircraft. The aircraft crashed, either due to actions of the pilots or the actions of the passengers, about 150 miles from Washington. All seven crew members, 34 passengers, and four hijackers were killed.
    Boeing 757 plane crashes
    Attack on New York and Washington
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    16 June 2010; United Express; Embraer E145LR; N847HK; flight 8050; Ottawa, Canada: United Express 8050, a nonstop flight from Washington's Dulles airport to Ottawa's Macdonald-Cartier airport, landed on runway 7, was unable to stop on the runway, coming to rest about 150 meters off the end of the runway. It was raining at the time of the accident. The nose landing gear collapsed, and there was no post crash fire. Both pilots and one passenger was injured. The other 32 passengers and the flight attendant were not injured. The investigation concluded that the crew landed at a higher than recommended speed and did not set the flaps at the recommended position for the wet runway conditions, which resulted in a higher landing speed and longer landing distance.
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    Embraer 145 plane crashes

    20 July 2010; United Airlines; 777-200; flight 967; over Kansas: The aircraft was on a scheduled domestic flight from Washington, DC (IAD) to Los Angeles (LAX) when it diverted to Denver, CO (DIA) after apparently experiencing significant turbulence while flying at 34,000 feet over Kansas.
    
    According to United, the aircraft had 255 passengers and 10 crew members. FAA spokesman Ian Gregor in Los Angeles said 26 passengers and four crew members were injured, and that one person was critically hurt, though no additional details were provided about the most seriously injured person. Local media reported that 21 people were transported to Denver area hospitals.
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    4 September 2011; United Express; Embraer E145LR; N840HK; flight 3363; Ottawa, Canada: The aircraft was on a scheduled international flight from Chicago, IL to Ottawa's Macdonald-Cartier airport. It started to rain shortly before landing and the aircraft landed on runway 32. The accident investigation concluded that the aircraft was at a higher than recommended speed shortly before touchdown, and the crew chose to continue the landing rather than follow standard operating procedures and abort the landing. After touching down, the aircraft began to hydroplane and the crew was not able to stop the aircraft on the runway. After veering off the runway, both main landing gear collapsed and there was a fuel leak due to a damage landing gear, but there was no post crash fire. The three crew members and 44 passengers were not injured.
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    Embraer 145 plane crashes

United Airlines Fleet

Please review the U.S. accident and incident record page and the U.S. fleet page for information about United Express and other regional airlines with a United Airlines affiliation.