A United Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Newark returned to Harry Reid Airport on Saturday after a crew member spotted a passenger sending text messages saying he intended to hijack the plane, according to online aviation publication Simple Flying.
The report cited air traffic control (ATC) recordings shared on X/Twitter showing that the passenger was unaware of the emergency return to the airport, where law enforcement was waiting for him.
The pilot of United Flight 1681, operated by a Boeing 737 MAX 8, can be heard in the recording saying the cockpit “locked down” following the flight attendant’s report of the threat, which Simple Flying said occurred shortly after departure.
The incident comes less than a month after the attempted hijacking of flydubai flight 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv on October 1 by one of the pilots, Omani national Hamam al Hamami, who repeatedly hit the captain with an ax before being overpowered by several Israeli passengers on board.
The Transportation Ministry informed United on Wednesday that it had barred one of its pilots from entering Israel due to his sympathies with Iran, as the country strengthens its background check measures for foreign crews following the Flydubai incident.
Regarding Saturday’s incident, Simple Flying noted that the United plane’s beep code changed to 7700, signaling a general emergency, before it turned away. This differs from the diversion code, which is 7500.
Additionally, the return flight required a longer than standard route to burn off excess fuel, as the MAX 8 does not have fuel offload capability and had full tanks for its scheduled flight to Newark Liberty Airport, resulting in excess weight for an early landing.
Pilot advises ATC planes may need full runway length due to weight issue
As an added precaution, the pilot informed ATC that he might need the entirety of Runway 26L to land safely even after burning fuel, according to Simple Flying.
According to the airport diagram published by the FAA, Runway 26L at Harry Reid Airport is 10,526 feet (3,208 meters) long, more than 2,000 feet (610 meters) longer than the maximum landing distance listed in the aircraft’s official performance charts, even with maximum weight and wet runway conditions.
It was not immediately clear why the pilot did not select parallel runway 26R, which the diagram shows as being nearly 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) longer than 26L, for additional redundancy.
No injuries were reported during the incident; The FAA will investigate
The plane landed safely despite weight issues, according to Fox 5 Las Vegas, with no injuries among its 150 passengers and six crew members.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a preliminary statement that it intends to investigate the incident, and United told Fox 5 that the flight returned to Newark on Sunday following a “potential safety issue.”
Fox 5 reached out to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for comment, but they did not respond as of press time.
Udi Etzion and Amit Avitan contributed to this report.
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