United Airlines Flight 2127 pushed back in Los Angeles around 10:15 a.m. Pacific time this morning bound for Newark. The Boeing 787-9, registered as N24972, took off at 10:43 a.m. It was back on the ground 36 minutes later with a left engine issue. Update: evacuation footage from inside the aircraft below.
🚨Exclusive video: A United 787 lands at LAX and emergency slides are deployed—engine catches fire after landing! Seen live on Airline Videos Live, March 2nd, 2026. pic.twitter.com/GlgnDUHTVx
— AIRLINE VIDEOS (@airlinevideos) March 2, 2026
There was visible smoke near the left engine when the plane landed, with fire crews spraying it down. It was still smoking nearly an hour later.
256 passengers and 12 crew evacuated the aircraft via slides onto a taxiway, and were bused to the terminal. The only known injury was a passenger’s cut finger. The issued a ground stop at the airport, which was lifted around 12:30 p.m. local time. However, runway 25L remained closed.
United flight LAX to EWR diverted back to LAX for engine fire, evacuated all passengers. Crazy video @ABC7 @KTLA @FOXLA @NBCLA pic.twitter.com/B2oqaAqZoB
— Kieran Gilmore (@kierangilmore_) March 2, 2026
JUST IN | Aircraft Emergency, Ground Stop at LAX
United flight #2127 was heading to Newark and reported engine problems shortly after taking off from LAX. They returned to make an emergency landing at LAX. The aircraft landed safely and all crew members and passengers have… pic.twitter.com/ccVYr4yn3u— Citizen Los Angeles (@CitizenAppLA) March 2, 2026
The United Club was hastily closed. Presumably they planned to use the space managing this, perhaps for evacuated passengers.
Update: Here’s video from inside the aircraft, heading down the slide taken by a passenger during the evacuation.
I was sitting next to the engine 😅 pic.twitter.com/xddgo84gCG
— Hash Tribe 🏕 (@thehashtribe) March 2, 2026
Taking video of the evacuation is not a great idea! It can be a distraction from making it out as quickly and safely as possible. Nonetheless you’ll probably be seeing quite a bit of this footage, and it’s commonplace in incidents like this one.
Yikes. Hope everyone’s alright. Looks expensive. (Tim, go easy on ’em…)
Odd that they were stopped for over a minute, waiting for the air stairs to hook up to 1R. The slides didn’t deploy until 1R was opened for the stairs.
If it was an emergency enough to deploy the slides why would they wait? And the converse, if it was fine to wait even a minute, why deploy the slides?
Make that over 2 and a half minutes after being stopped before the slides deployed.
Never commented here before but hi from the LAX United lounge. I was on this flight. Lots of people with cuts and abrasions (what one LAFD called “rug burn”). A few other banged up hips, knees and wrists. When I left the medic area, seemed that no one wanted to take the ambulance ride and most injuries were minor.
Kudos to the ground teams for making this as less bad as possible. And while many of us could use a drink, they are not serving alcohol in the club.
For the record, the slide is extremely fast.
@greg: In the cabin, when we landed, there wasn’t any immediacy… A few of us could see fire trucks coming. Then the smoke became apparent and the smoke alarms aft started going off and the first officer the crew to exit right. That’s when you see everyone happen. Frankly, things were calm and quiet, and we even gave an applause upon landing.
Looks like pilots thought they would not have to evacuate and then engine fire light came on. Yikes. Discharged fire suppression system. Don’t see any injuries reported during evacuation which is good.
Just Monday morning QB’ing but the decision to evacuate after the trucks eliminated any hazardous situation, is going to be looked at very negatively by United and the FAA. It could be that the FAs initiated the evacuation.
More to come I’m sure.
@Pilot – interesting possibility
AVHerald reconciles the delay…
“Initially the crew thought they would not need to evacuate, but the engine fire indication came back on prompting the crew to initiate an emergency evacuation. The crew advised that both fire bottles had been discharged.”
https://avherald.com/h?article=535ed907&opt=0
United was extremely accommodating every one who may have been inconvenienced
was offered 500 bonus points along with complimentary acesss to the United club with unlimited water fountain access
Love the guy with the full carry on in the evacuation video. Ridiculous
@Pilot93434 — Huh, lookie here…a supposed ‘pilot’ rushing to blame flight attendants speculatively… SHOCKING. (Maybe, we don’t need to rush to blame anyone, and just let them investigate. Or, we can blame the pilot, who usually makes the call, no?)
And every one of the bimbasses who grabbed their carryons should be fined by the FAA AND banned from flying!! Folks, this was am EMERGENCY!!!
Jeez!!!
@Pilot93434, Cant remeber what episode of AirDisaster but similiar scenario in UAE where there was fire onboard. The plane came back and landed but pilots never shutoff the engines and never evacuated, and eventually the plane burned to ground with everyone in it.
Thanks for the details AftRight
@Scott Weber — If it’s on your body (purse, passport wallet, etc.), I don’t think it’s unreasonable to bring it with you. Rolly carry-on from the overhead? Leave it behind.
@Pilot93434
WRONG United and the FAA aren’t going to have a problem with how this was handled by the crew.
The decision to evacuate can be delayed pending evaluation of additional information, such as continued smoke/fire from the aircraft after it is safely back on the ground. Flight attendants can also initiate an evacuation as they may see something we don’t.
My big problem is the stupid entitled passengers who continue to bring their luggage onto the slide.
People have died in past emergencies because of this behavior. Luggage clogs the aisles, impeding evacuation, and can damage and even deflate the slide trapping your fellow passengers on board. The rules apply to everyone, including you, for a reason
With all the video available these days we should be finding and fining, even jailing, people who bring their luggage with them. Unless an example is set, people will die in a future incident.
Someone said: both fire bottles deployed, but y he fire warning light still on. Yeah—get off the airplane! It’s only a short burn time to the fuel tank. Don’t take your stuff with you, just your pocket stuff. You know, read the boring card before you leave the gate. These planes are extremely safe to fly in.
Ben, lol, finding and fining people? What planet do you live on?
What the hell is “Evaucation”? I can’t speak for UAL but other airlines have a policy that if the flight attendants do not hear from the flight deck after XXX minutes/seconds, they can initiate an evacuation on their own if they feel the need. “Hey ‘Betty’, this is the captain. As you can see, the left engine is still smoking. We’re trying to work out what to do next. I’m not declaring an evacuation yet. I’ll be back to you in about a minute.” Well, if the captain doesn’t come back to ‘Betty’ in a minute, ‘Betty’ can then decide when to evacuate based on ‘Betty’s’ assessment. I wouldn’t second guess anything/anyone on evacuation as they are dangerous, too