After Engine Fire Grounds United’s 777-200 Pratt & Whitney Subfleet, Some Polaris Flights Operate To Hawaii

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I was in Maui and Molokai last week and flew home Thursday on American, though I nearly switched to United after our flight was delayed.

However United flies their pre-merger United 777-200s with a high density 2-4-2 configuration in business class and would have required stops in Honolulu and Denver on the way home, which isn’t a particularly attractive option.

United flies those older 777-200s, which have Pratt & Whitney 4000 series engines, on many Hawaii routes. They fly their pre-merger Continental 777-200LRs and their newer 777-300ERs, which have GE engines and Polaris business class seating in a 1-2-1 configuration on higher margin international routes.

2 days later, United flight 328 from Denver back to Honolulu had an engine fire climbing out of Denver and had to do an emergency return to the airport after the plane dropped debris onto houses and cars in Broomfield, CO. Luckily there were no injuries.

 

 

 

Here is the ATC play by play:

 

The incident happened on a 777 with the registration number N772UA, which has flown for United for more than 26 years. The pilots did a flawless job landing the jumbo on one working engine.

In February 2018, a United 777 with registration number N773UA had a similar Pratt & Whitney 4000 series engine fire from San Francisco to Honolulu. That plane was delivered to United with N772UA in 1995. Ironically enough, that very plane that had the 2018 incident, N773UA, is what United wound up using as the rescue plane to eventually fly the passengers from Denver to Honolulu this past Saturday.

2 months ago, a JAL 777 with a Pratt & Whitney 4000 series engine had a similar problem as well.

United has temporarily grounded their 777 subfleet that have Pratt & Whitney 4000 series engines as the NTSB investigates. JAL and ANA have done the same.

While the Boeing 737MAX fiasco was wholly Boeing’s fault, this appears to be an issue that  only affects 777s with Pratt & Whitney engines as there have been no issues with 777s that have GE engines.

Boeing issued a statement supporting the grounding of 777s with Pratt & Whitney 4000 series engines. There are 69 active 777s with Pratt & Whitney engines worldwide and another 59 in storage. United has 24 of those in active service and another 28 in storage.

As United often serves up the high density 777s with Pratt & Whitney engines on their Hawaii flights, I took a look at some of the United planes flying to Hawaii this week.

Here are some samples below. In normal times, United doesn’t operate any Polaris business class seating with direct aisle access, but I found quite a few due to the subfleet grounding:

  • Chicago-Honolulu: 767-300ER (Polaris seating)
  • Chicago-Maui: 767-300ER
  • Denver-Honolulu: 787-8 (GE Engine/Polaris seating)
  • Denver-Kona: 757-200
  • Denver-Lihue: 757-200
  • Denver-Maui: 757-200
  • Houston-Honolulu: 767-300ER
  • Los Angeles-Honolulu: 777-300ER (GE Engine/Polaris seating)
  • Los Angeles-Kona: 737-900
  • Los Angeles-Maui: 757-300
  • San Francisco-Honolulu: 777-300ER (GE Engine/Polaris seating)
  • San Francisco-Kona: 737-800
  • San Francisco-Lihue: 737-800
  • San Francisco-Maui: 777-200 (GE Engine/Polaris seating)

In other news, United now plans to fly nonstop from Chicago to Kona with 4 weekly 787-8 flights from June 3 through September 5 and from December 17 through January 2. Those will be United’s first normally scheduled flights to have decent odds of having Polaris business seating.

They will also fly from Newark to Maui with 4 weekly 767-300 flights from June 3 through September 5 and from December 17 through January 3.

United will also resume an old Continental route that it cancelled during the merger process, from Orange County/SNA to Honolulu daily on a 737-700.

Only time will tell just how long the 777 with Pratt & Whitney engines will be grounded for, but in the meantime lucky passengers are going to get a nice Polaris or premium economy seat upgrade!

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16 Comments On "After Engine Fire Grounds United’s 777-200 Pratt & Whitney Subfleet, Some Polaris Flights Operate To Hawaii"

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

Lester

Big deal

Reading Comprehension

“…but in the meantime lucky passengers are going to get a nice Polaris or premium economy seat upgrade!”

Chaim

747 with P&W engine (smaller version) also caught on fire in Amsterdam the same day

Nirc

Trip report please

Izz

Let’s keep these ghetto-business-class planes grounded! Wishful hoping.

JohnB

I guess the EWR flights UA363/UA362 don’t count anymore?

Dave

So what actually happens when the plane parts damage part of one’s home or yard? Does one’s insurance policy go after the airline? Does the airline reach out to come pick up the parts and clean/repair the mess? Does United at least give a $50 flight voucher for a future flight within the next 12 months?

YYZOGG

@Dave Was that your front yard in the pic?

dfw jon

Dan, this was a fun read and the irony of those fateful planes. Interesting facts dug up, my friend.

Good Vibes

Great article!

Just in case you’re wondering: the reason for such a small plane from SNA-HNL is due to SNA being of the most noise sensitive airports in the US. If they were allowed to fly it, I’m sure that they could easily fill a B752.

Wonders...

I had a few flight numbers change on Southwest … Admittedly, I don’t know what type of plane they are but it seems as if the flight numbers changed but times stayed the same. Is that because they swapped planes out or is that normal? Only asking as it’s new to me and since it was to The Big Island, I figured they were maybe connected?

Shaul

Southwest only flies B737, not 777.

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