Cancun flight vanishes before emergency landing in New Orleans
A United Airlines flight from Cancun made an emergency landing this morning after briefly disappearing from radar screens.
United 1832 reportedly experienced a mechanical problem and landed early rather than risk continuing to its planned destination in Houston.
The pilot told passengers that there was “a contaminant in the fuel and that one of the plane’s engines needed to be cut off,” FOX 8 in New Orleans reported.
The flight took off at 8:45 a.m., crossed the Gulf of Mexico and touched down at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport at 10:19 a.m. No injuries were reported.
Another plane was found to take the passengers to Houston. Upon clearing Customs and Border Protection, the 107 passengers were expected to arrive early Saturday afternoon.
AMAG Global, which monitors the atmosphere, initially posted on Twitter that the Boeing 737 had vanished from radar minutes after takeoff.
Lee Steele is the founding director of Roof Cat Media and has published Yucatán Magazine and other titles since 2012.