HOUSTON — A United Airlines flight returned to Houston Friday because of an issue with the cabin door.
An airline spokesperson said flight 2152 was headed from Houston to Fort Lauderdale when someone noticed the cabin door had a loose handle. She said they returned to Bush IAH about 30 minutes after takeoff "out of an abundance of caution."
Passengers were placed on another plane, which later landed safely in Fort Lauderdale.
No one was hurt.
It was at least the third issue involving a United flight in Houston in the past month.
Plane veers off runway
The FAA is still investigating a March 8 incident when a United Airlines plane veered into the grass at Bush Intercontinental Airport. The passengers had to be evacuated.
The airlines said it happened when the flight from Memphis landed and went from the runway into the grass as it was heading to the gate.
No one was hurt but passengers said it was scary.
"There was a lot of yelling because it was a big bang, and then everyone was sitting sideways," John Lee of Houston said. "People were really starting to raise the anxiety and get scared."
"Well, there was a huge pop, plane tilted over and everybody kind of gasped. The lady across the way screamed," Mike Allard from New Caney, Texas told us.
Flames seen shooting from engine
On March 7, a video appeared to show flames shooting from an engine on a United Airlines flight. Flight 1118 made an emergency landing in Houston.
A spokesperson with United Airlines later told KHOU 11 News that bubble wrap on the airfield got sucked into the engine as it took off from Houston and that's what caused the flames.
She said it's called a "compressor stall” and the engine was not on fire. Instead, it was burning off fuel which caused the flames seen in the video.
The flight landed safely and the passengers deplaned normally, according to United.
More federal oversight
Last week, the company announced that federal regulators are increasing their oversight of United following a series of other recent issues including a piece of the outer fuselage falling off one jet and a plane losing a tire during takeoff.
United's vice president of corporate safety, Sasha Johnson, said the Federal Aviation Administration will examine “multiple areas of our operation” to ensure safety compliance.
“Over the next several weeks, we will begin to see more of an FAA presence in our operation as they begin to review some of our work processes, manuals and facilities,” she said in a note to employees. “We welcome their engagement and are very open to hear from them about what they find and their perspective on things we may need to change to make us even safer.”
United is the nation's second-largest airline by revenue, behind Delta Air Lines.
