Repooc17

Anyone on UA29 (SFO to SIN) today (Jul 27 2023)?

Plane returned to SFO 3 hrs after takeoff. Looks like attempt #2 will be 11pm tonight, so at least 11 hrs+ of delay.

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ContinentalFan

There was a news report today that United 29 squawked the general emergency code, 770, and returned to SFO. The Singapore bound flight has since been canceled. I’m curious to know what happened. Were there any FTers on the flight?

lsquare

I've had some bad luck on this flight as well. Last year, there was a delay out of SFO on UA29. All passengers including me were asked to deplane after we boarded. The FA told me there was a guy who caused a commotion and storm out of the plane. We haven't left the gate yet. I think it was the captain who decided they needed to do a security sweep. I think my flight was delayed by about two hours.

RobOnLI

And the return SIN-SFO is naturally cancelled. It was the 9pm July 29th flight.

-RM

lsquare

I wonder what UA will do to accommodate those customers?

RobOnLI

SIN is not a bad spot to have a cancelled flight. Even if UA loathes rebooking on SQ (and SQ may not take the ticket?), UA can rebook on NH, BR, TG easily.

-RM

gavron

OB DISC: FAA Commercial Helicopter Pilot here.

The squawk codes are 4-digits. It's 7700 not 770 for general emergencies.

7500 - Hijack
7600 - Comm failure
7700 - Emergency

The quick way to remember (we have mnemonics for everything) is
Hi, Jack!
Can't talk!
Going down!

E
It is unusual for an aircraft to declare an emergency and there be no NTSB report... but time will tell. Engine failure and diversion are normal. ILS landing with an engine out is a bit unusual because once you lose one engine you worry about WHY it failed and hope the other isn't affected. You'd hardly let the autopilot fly you in, but manual ILS (localizer + glide slope) makes sense. I'm thinking out loud.

docbert

Apparently an anti-icing system issue/failure. The aircraft left for MEL the following night, so clearly not too complex a fix.

To make matters worse, UA29 was canceled again yesterday (28th). Oddly enough, an hour or so before departure yesterday afternoon they changed the scheduled aircraft for that flight to be the same aircraft that had flown the replacement UA29 on the 27th - which obviously isn't possible without a very significant delay given this is a 15+ hour trip in each direction AND they left 12 hours late. Then an hour or so later they seem to have realized that wasn't going to work and canceled it outright.

Not quite. UA29 on the 27th would have returned as UA28 on the 28th (not the 29th) - which was canceled. UA28 on the 29th would have been the aircraft from UA29 on the 28th (confused yet?!) which was also canceled. UA1 was also cancelled on the 27th (presumably replaced with the replacement flight for UA28), and however the return UA2 was not cancelled as their used the aircraft from the replacement/delayed UA28.

clubord

Interesting assessment. Not sure some here would necessarily agree with you.

An ILS is exactly the approach you would request. We’ve flown thousands of these over the years and practice them relentlessly in the simulator both with autopilot on and off.

Speaking of, I would absolutely keep the autopilot on as long as possible to reduce individual workloads and increase overall situational awareness during the emergency. Why not use all the automation available to you when you need it the most?

BNAFlyer1K

UA canceled SIN-SFO (UA28) two days in a row. I was supposed to be on the second canceled flight. No availability on SQ to either SFO or LAX and they refused to book NH or TG. Ended up going to FRA on LH instead. No compensation offered, not even a generic "we're sorry" email. I'm about done with United and considering AA or DL moving forward.

uastarflyer

Something is hinky if they won’t rebook on NH with a revenue share. And who is “they” - ground staff in SIN? Or UA phone desk?

Do AA or DL fly to SIN? Having a wealth of options in Star Alliance is compelling.

BNAFlyer1K

"They" refers to the UA call center. First agent I spoke with was pretty useless and I requested a supervisor fairly quickly. Ended up waiting over an hour for a supervisor and they called the ticket desk to book me on LH. Having a wealth of options isn't all that useful if the carrier consistently underperforms. My flight to SFO on the outbound leg was canceled as well. At least they offered a $250 certificate, even if it was an auto-generated email. When I called UA about compensation for the canceled SIN-SFO flight, they offered $200 or 10K miles. Pretty low ball for a paid business class ticket IMHO.

Kacee

Perhaps NH flights were booked full?
I would absolutely suggest writing in to UA customer care.
UA much prefers JV partners NH and LH for rebookings. Not sure how common/easy it would be to rebook on BR or OZ; SQ we know can be a challenge. And while someone mentioned TG, not sure how that helps unless one's final destination is BKK :-)

BNAFlyer1K

Given the back to back UA28 cancellations, it wouldn't have surprised me that SQ and NH were both sold out (in biz class at least).

Is there a 1K Voice email still? For the few times I've bothered reaching out to customer care through the website, I've gotten back nothing but generic responses. I was hoping calling would make a difference this time. I was told a supervisor would be calling me back... still waiting for that call.

uastarflyer

Definitely, which is why resistance to rebook on NH struck me as odd.

My comment about *A and SIN was more about the comment discussing AA and DL. Current dispatch issues aside, there is a lot of *A lift SIN-USA