United Airlines is in the midst of an FAA investigation over safety practices that are limiting its ability to grow. For instance, as I explained last month, they aren’t able to open up new destinations. Against a backdrop of recent issues with Boeing aircraft as well, there’s a heightened sensitivity to aviation safety issues more broadly.
So it became international news when a video began circulating on social media of what appears to be a United Airlines pilot performing an impromptu repair on a plane window just before takeoff from Denver to Dallas – Fort Worth.
The passenger who recorded this pre-flight maintenance, self-identified as a toddler expert named Kristin, expressed shock and confusion over the situation through a series of Instagram posts. She highlighted the pilot’s hands-on approach to what seemed to the lay person like a critical structural adjustment, sparking alarm.
Of course, the plane operated normally and landed without incident, because this is not a thing. She referred to the landing as a minor miracle – and in somewhat of a tell she attributed it to ‘eclipse season.’
United Airlines pilot puts a window back into place a few minutes before takeoff
This was filmed by a passenger on a Denver-Dallas flight. pic.twitter.com/JOMiszWjzu
— hiiຖ໐iˢ (@chiIIum) April 10, 2024
Pilot @MCCCANM broke down why this is not a concern on Twitter, or indeed anything unusual:
Airplane windows consist of three panes; the outer two maintain pressurization. The plastic inner pane – which the pilot is fixing below – is to prevent passengers from scratching/licking the important windows
If you look closely, there is a small hole in the middle pane – it allows pressurization to stabilize so the outer pane is primarily bearing the load. Should the outer pane fail (rare), the middle pane takes over (the small hole is not a problem, airplanes leak all over)
Pilots are authorized to perform certain repairs on their own; for example, changing light bulbs in the cockpit (we keep a spare set) or resetting circuit breakers. In some cases, pilots will notify maintenance of an issue, who then directs pilots on how to repair the item. I think that’s the most likely case here. The inner pane is a pretty simple fix; it’s likely it came loose when a passenger banged into it hard enough
Airplane windows consist of three panes; the outer two maintain pressurization. The plastic inner pane – which the pilot is fixing below – is to prevent passengers from scratching/licking the important windows
If you look closely, there is a small hole in the middle pane – it… https://t.co/GSTM4GbXmG
— KC-10 Driver ✈️ ✈️ B-737 Wrangler (@MCCCANM) April 9, 2024
He further noted that on a recent flight some of his passengers “complained their headsets weren’t working…they had plugged them into the electrical outlet” but even this didn’t cause an issue, and that the plane’s “electrical system would have isolated the fault & removed power” even if it had.
Nonetheless, it’s understandable why the average passenger who might fly once a year would find this strange.
this is simply a cosmetic fix but you have to ask if it was really worth doing a repair in uniform during an active flight.
It was worth it to allay the fears of the pax sitting in the window seat that they would get sucked out of place. 😀
Was he in a hurry to get home?!!?
*the plane
Who licks a window?
Ugh…..
@Tim Dunn … Yes , it was worth doing the repair in uniform . Conscientious employee .
Probably the go home leg for the Pilot.
I’m glad that the pilot knows how to make minor fixes on the airplane he is flying. Better than having a roll of duct tape. At the same time, the pilot doing the fix can evaluate the situation and determine if there is more of a problem that cannot be fixed so easily. Good job.
@ Tim Dunn – as I always say about you , another thing you are NOT an expert on, but you think you are.
FACT- Pilots at an outstation can be and often are directed by maintenance personnel on minor procedures to be performed per the FAA approved repair manual.
It is done this way to get the aircraft back to the hub, all done by SOP.
But we have bloggers, the press and Tim Dunn that all have different reasons for blowing up issues that are not real to sensationalize to the masses.
Carry on as they say.
Life is short, be sure you spend as much time as possible arguing with idiots on the internet…..
If the airlines made a little effort to expllain to passengers how planes fly what ATC is etc maybe more would relax. But they infantilize them and then wonder why people get panicky or aggressive. Treat them like children and you get childish responses
You’re missing the point. Pilots aren’t allowed to work on the planes they fly for the very same reasons the driver in his Mercedes isn’t. He is neither trained nor qualified to make airworthiness decisions regarding anything outside the cockpit. First of all he isn’t a certified mechanic. There are too many regulations to go into here but here’s a couple for you to look up: § 65.81 General privileges and limitations.
§ 43.9 Content, form, and disposition of maintenance, preventive maintenance, rebuilding, and alteration records
§ 121.379 Authority to perform and approve maintenance, preventive maintenance, and alterations.
§ 121.363 Responsibility for airworthiness.
There was a time when pilots were allowed to zero out their altimeters to ensure accuracy. Those times are long gone in the airline world. Things have developed to the point where there are literally no driver/user fixable things in any current commercial airliner. I don’t care if it’s an overhead bin that won’t close, the plane can’t legally move until the properly certificated and authorized A&P mechanic says it’s okay.
How does that pilot know that window that popped out of the frame isn’t there because of some stress behind the panel. Something made it pop. This isn’t the military with a bunch of 20 somethings going off to kill the enemy. Take the time to do it right You’ll get fewer six o’clock headline stories that way.
Sorry, Gary, you really need to either get someone on staff to keep you straight or stay in your lane as the professional passenger you are.
as usual, some jump to conclusions and denigrate others by failing to read what was written.
Nobody doubts the off-duty pilot cares about his company, was doing what he could do help it look good, and was using his “free time” to fix a problem that he was capable of doing.
The issue is HOW he did it which is captured in Gary’s title.
he could have easily accomplished the same thing by either doing it before passengers were onboard or waiting until after they all left because customers don’t understand what is going on or why a pilot and not a mechanic is doing the repair.
Kudos to this pilot, and the one who unjammed the WC door couple months back. They’re fixing problems rather than just diverting a flight and causing folks grief for no good reason. A short explanation over PA would’ve been good though.
WOW! Did everyone see that good earnings report by Delta this morning????
Thing 1 simply kicking the hornets’ nest for the fun of it….
The real problem here is the modern approach to the Internet. Someone who knows nothing about planes and knows she knows nothing about planes nevertheless decides to spout conjecture on the Internet to get a bunch of other idiots riled up.
The modern Internet is full of people who feel compelled to tell the world everything they think about everything without considering that maybe doing so makes them look stupid.
This is conceptually no different from the guy who says “I’m not a doctor, but your doctor is wrong, you should use healing crystals instead of penicillin.”
I don’t know anything about toddlers, so I’m not going to go onto Twitter and start shooting off my mouth about how I saw a licensed preschool teacher doing something I didn’t understand and therefore the teacher is screwing up with the kids. She should do the same.
If you know nothing about airplanes, it’s safest to assume the guy in the airplane-dude shirt knows more than you, so you should at least do some research before spewing whatever thought pops into your head.
@JorgeGeorge Paez You’d be surprised the number of awful children I’ve seen licking windows, with the parents sitting right there.
thing 1,
the off-duty pilot fixing windows is not related to earnings but, Delta did substantially outperform analyst expectations on revenue and is expected to be the only big 4 and perhaps the only large US airline that shows a profit in the first quarter.
Fuel prices are up and labor costs are showing up more in off-peak seasons.
DL did say demand is normalizing, Europe and domestic is normalizing including w/ near pre-covid levels of business travel demand, Japan and S. Korea is strong while China is not as strong on revenue, and DL’s Latam JV is “just getting started” and provided substantial opportunities to increase capacity (and share). DL says it not only gets a domestic revenue premium to the industry but also the same in international markets which it expects to continue to grow.
Passenger revenue outlook remains strong. DL is not growing its coach domestic capacity but growing premium cabins and international capacity.
DL’s MRO revenues are down because of a parts shortage and their Amex revenue continues to grow to highest ever levels. Those that predicted a hit to Amex/DL revenues must be disappointed they haven’t happened yet.
anything you want to comment on?
OMG the pilot is merely putting the frame back on , they come off all the time. The internet and social media are ruining the world. Every idiot who thinks they know something blow everything out of proportion.
While I cannot speak to the specifics of this fix, there are absolutely some circumstances in which the pilot (under direction from Maitenence control and the MEL/CDL/NEF guidance) may make small repairs or temporary fixes to the aircraft. The guidance is specific, and the items that may be repaired are generally very non-critical in nature.
Hey lady nobody was tweeting about your little brat lap child crying the whole way to Texas so quit complaining about a pilot fixing a window. Thanks.
That’s not the actual pressurized window it’s a cosmetic sidewall plastic that’s has the shape of the real window ! People don’t know anything about planes are get way to scared !
Epoxy glue from Home Depot usually won’t stick to plastic long-term. Failed repair. Let’s Go Captain.
Airplane mechanics are aviators and there fore they some times wear aviators uniforms with stripes(epaulets) and they will take care of some issues in flight if feasible. could this have been a mechanic as some companies’ require that they travel in uniform.
@Tim Dunn. Nope – I bought Delta call options when the stock bottomed out a few months ago, so I got no complaints….
Many pilots have come up through the ranks from being AP mechanics. A simple repair like this should not panic anyone. It’s not like he was spotted with a hammer straightening out bent compressor blades.
As a Flight Attendant I made many inflight repairs of cosmetic items (which is what this window is). That plastic pane and frame get removed all the time by passengers who pull on them or shove safety cards in to keep the window shade up
It’s just a piece of trim for the window! Nothing structural. The pilot would never attempt to do a repair on a structure, no more than an engineer would attempt to fly the plane.
Too much ado about nothing!