Originally Posted by mherdeg

The pilot said there was a problem with the rudder.

3 April UA110 (the 6pm EWR-LHR) was actually cancelled twice -- (1) at about 5:45pm the assigned 767 was cancelled for mechanical reasons, and passengers were told to await rebooking. The flight was reinstated and a new plane was assigned. The new plane had a 2 hour mechanical delay on the ground, then took off, then diverted back to EWR, where (2) it was cancelled after landing, at about 11pm.

Onboard the pilot told customers that there was a problem with the rudder, that they would circle for about an hour to dump enough fuel to land, and that the plan of record was to attempt takeoff again after landing and fixing the issue. Instead the flight was cancelled after it landed.

Passengers were rebooked onto UA146, the 11pm 767 which initially took a 30min mechanical delay that became a longer customer delay as many pax from UA110 were gradually reaccommodated onto UA146.