United Airlines diverts Hawaii-bound flight back due to mechanical issue

The affected Boeing 757-300 is nearly 23 years old with registration N78866. Delivered in 2002, it has logged over 69,000 hours across more than 20,700 flight cycles as per ch-aviation records.

This diversion follows several recent incidents involving United's Boeing 757s. A similar situation occurred days earlier when another Boeing 757-300 was diverted due to smoke detected in the cabin during a flight from Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX).

Additionally, there have been minor incidents including an October hydraulic failure on a Denver-to-Lihue flight and an odor detection leading to a Pittsburgh diversion.

United Airlines plans to phase out its older Boeing 757s with new Airbus A321XLRs starting in 2025. Patrick Quayle, Senior Vice President for Global Network Planning and Alliances at United, highlighted that current operations are uneconomical for smaller markets served by these planes.