Charlville

My wife and I were on our way back to the UK on this flight via Washington.

During taxi to the terminal the plan stopped very sharply, this caused items to be thrown around the cabin along with making passengers quite uncomfortable.

We were sitting in first class and were wearing the lap and shoulder belts, the heavy stop resulted in my wife sustaining some damage to her neck which is getting somewhat worse.

I wondered if anyone has any idea what happened to cause the plane to brake so heavily, as there was no explanation or apology from the flight deck or crew?

We reported the incident in the lounge at IAD and on the United website and we are now awaiting a response.

Eastbay1K

I've had planes stop quite short due to improper baggage and other vehicles not yielding properly to aircraft.

obscure2k

Please continue to follow this discussion in the UA Forum.
Thanks..
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

FightingIlliniUAL

You're asking us to speculate as to why your plane stopped suddenly? Why?

SFflyer123

That's why people are supposed to be in their seats during an active taxi. I'd rather have the plan stop hard & abruptly than have it crash into stuff like this one did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcLo_...om=PL&index=72

boggs

Supposedly something similar happened on the SFO-FRA UA900 flight today. Had friend of a friend who reported - plane was taking off, then suddenly aircraft started wobbling.

Pilot aborted take off and slammed the breaks.
Apparently that caused a number of tires to explode (? not verified) but the plane was taken back to the gate (without AAA tow truck).

No explanation was provided and I am yet to hear about what options were offered as they were connecting to FCO.

Anyone knows more details?

jd2000

UA900 eventually departed around 7:30pm, just after UA926.

jackonferry

Were you part of the flight crew or something? Otherwise, how were you wearing shoulder belts?

JeffS

The new first class seats have a shoulder strap in addition to the lap belt.

Charlville

I'm not asking anyone to speculate, just asking if anyone actually knows?

skylady

Can you tell us what items were thrown about the cabin? Wonder why they were not secured?

Charlville

The usual things that people have on their laps at this point, mobile phones, purses etc.

docbert

From avherald.com :

A United Airlines Boeing 747-400, registration N175UA performing flight UA-900 from San Francisco,CA (USA) to Frankfurt/Main (Germany), rejected takeoff from San Francisco's runway 28R at high speed after a nose wheel tyre burst just before the crossing point with runway 01R/19L leaving debris on runway 28R across both runways 01/19. The airplane stopped safely, fire trucks were called out to monitor the hot brakes. The airplane was subsequently towed to the apron.

All runways except 28L had to be temporarily closed until tyre debris could be cleared (prompting an unknown pilot to ask "Have a good day?"), several aircraft had to go around, multiple departures were delayed. Runway 01R reopened 8 minutes, 01L 13 minutes after the rejected takeoff.

aluminumdriver

My guess is they had to stop suddenly to avoid something, truck, plane, mobile lounge, don't really know. Better to stop suddenly than hit something and cause millions in damage.

Thus why passengers are told to keep strapped in until at the gate and the SB sign is turned off. Since aircraft taxi at 20 mph or less usually, even braking pretty hard really isn't a hard stop per se, not like you would have in a car.

AD

dimramon

This is a good example of why you need to keep that seat belt on during taxiing.