United Flight 2477’s Runway Misadventure, Heads Into The Grass at Houston Airport

by Gary Leff

United Airlines flight 2477, a Boeing 737 Max 8, encountered an issue after landing at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston on Friday. Following its arrival from Memphis International Airport, the aircraft deviated from its intended path during the transition from the runway to the taxiway around 8 a.m. local time. The plane exited the paved surface and entered the grassy area beside the runway.

Passengers exited the aircraft on the taxiway and were transported to the terminal via buses. Social media posts provide additional context on what happened.

  • A tweet from JonNYC suggested uncertainty about the cause, mentioning either mechanical issues or wet pavement conditions as potential factors, leaning strong towards the latter as the probable cause.

  • Another tweet reported a collapse of the left main landing gear during the taxiing process, leaving it ambiguous whether the collapse occurred due to veering off the taxiway or if it was a failure.

  • Meanwhile, an eyewitness account contested the notion of a mechanical failure, claiming the aircraft was fully upright and landed successfully, suggesting that the mishap occurred when the pilot attempted a rapid turn, causing the aircraft to slide off the runway and subsequently damaging the landing gear.

According to the FAA,

After landing at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, United Airlines Flight 2477 rolled onto the grass when exiting onto the taxiway around 8 a.m. local time on Friday, March 8. The passengers deplaned on the taxiway and were bused to the terminal. The Boeing 737 departed from Memphis International Airport. Please contact the airline for additional information. The FAA will investigate.

Here’s the air traffic control tower, “United 2477 I see you in the grass. Rolling the trucks enroute.”

The FAA is probing a United 737 MAX 8 with stuck rudder pedals last month. Yesterday a United Boeing 737 had a dramatic engine flame-out and United’s Boeing 777 from San Francisco to Osaka dropped its main wheel on departure, diverting safely to Los Angeles. These incidents are all unrelated! But it sure does feel like we’re having too many of them.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. The aircraft path posted by FL 360aero combined with the tweet by Andrea M seem to suggest that the aircraft did run out of runway and attempted the final exit taxiway at excessive velocity. That said, there are likely a million reasons for that: Some pilot error, some mechanical, and some environmental. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out.

  4. First, Gary, all of these United incidents are indeed related because they are happening to the same airline. That link is not lost on the NTSB and FAA.
    What is not linked is that they involve different Boeing models of very different ages. The MAXs are relatively new while the 777 is an older aircraft with an established safety record.
    There could be a number of explanations for each of these events but the fact that United is experiencing all of them in such a short period of time is cause for concern and the FAA and NTSB will most certainly be looking at them all.

  5. Still multiple issues with the MAX. Still unsafe. Just lipstick on a pig (a 1960s era pig at that…). Regardless of when the gear collapsed, that shouldn’t happen at all. The original 737 (still this same ancient design) was designed to land in the grass.

  6. engine on fire, tire fell off, and then this, all United and 737, they are having a really bad week 🙂

  8. Honestly, this sounds like pilot error…late touchdown, late spoilers, braking, excessive speed, etc. Or a combination. What a week.

    Will be interesting to read the final report on this one.

  9. captain freedom,
    the safety board of Ireland did release the final report regarding a United 767 incident from 2022 in which the flight from IAD to ZRH diverted to Ireland because an engine lost pressure.
    The final report showed that the engine had just been serviced before departure but was not maintained per the airline’s specs resulting in engine leaking out.
    As much as Boeing is in the crosshairs for alot of things these days, most airline incidents are caused by the operator and not a result of something from the manufacturer of any component on the aircraft.

  10. There is yet another incident involving a United flight.
    UA 821, an A320 operating from SFO to MEX just diverted to LAX after a reported hydraulic failure.

  12. Marc,
    UAL has a breakdown of its workforce by gender and race in its latest 10K

  13. The elephant in the room is, this is a woman pilot hire by United’s DEI policy. I have nothing against women pilot’s, but when hired for diversity purposes, and when better qualified candidates are looked over, bad things are going to happen. And one of these days, something very bad is going to happen that didn’t need to

Comments are closed.