A transatlantic passenger jet was diverted to Shannon Airport on Wednesday afternoon after the crew announced an emergency shortly after taking off from Edinburgh.
United Airlines flight UA-37 took off from the Scottish airport shortly after 11.00am and was about 75 kilometres north of Donegal when the crew leveled off at 25,000 feet and announced an emergency.
Boeing 767-400 (ER) jet suffered pressurization problems
It’s understood the Boeing 767-400 (ER) jet suffered pressurisation problems. The flight, with 252 passengers and crew on board, was bound for Newark, New Jersey in the US at the time.
The flight crew made a Mayday radio call and broadcast an emergency squawk signal on the plane’s transponder. The crew requested clearance to divert to Shannon Airport and was quickly cleared to do so. The flight rerouted to Shannon where emergency procedures were put in place on the ground.
National Ambulance Service
That plan included alerting the local authority fire service, HSE and National Ambulance Service (NAS), and An Garda Síochána. Units of Clare County Fire and Rescue Service from Shannon and Ennis stations were requested to mobilize to the airport as support to Shannon’s own Airport Fire and Rescue Service. Ambulance crews and Gardaí were placed on standby at the airport fire station.
Airport and local authority fire crews were dispatched to holding points on taxiways adjacent to the runway ahead of the jet’s coming. The flight landed safely at 12.05 pm and was quickly pursued along the runway by emergency vehicles.
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The flight crew had also confirmed before they are coming that they would be making an overweight landing. As a result, fire officers used thermal imaging cameras to check that the jet’s landing gear had not overheated during the emergency landing. Once it was confirmed there was no overheating or fire, emergency crews were stood down.
A United Airlines spokesperson confirmed:
Engineers are investigating the cause of the problem while a comment is awaited from the airline.
“Our team at Shannon Airport is assisting customers of United flight 37 (Edinburgh-New York/Newark) which diverted to Shannon Airport to address a technical problem.
“Our maintenance team is currently inspecting the aircraft which is currently scheduled to depart from Shannon for New York/Newark at 2:00 pm (local time) today. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience caused.”
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