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| Date: | Friday 24 January 2025 |
| Time: | 00:31 UTC |
| Type: |  Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner |
| Owner/operator: | United Airlines |
| Registration: | N27903 |
| MSN: | 34823/52 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2012 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 256 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | None |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | over Dabouzra -
 Cote d'Ivoire
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | Lagos-Murtala Muhammed International Airport (LOS/DNMM) |
| Washington-Dulles International Airport, DC (IAD/KIAD) | |
| Investigating agency: | NTSB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information verified through data from accident investigation authorities |
On January 24, 2025, about 00:31 universal coordinated time (UTC), United Airlines (UAL) flight 613, a Boeing 787-8, experienced altitude excursions during cruise flight while transitioning over Cote d’Ivoire airspace at 36,000 feet. Of the 11 crew members and 243 passengers on board, one person sustained a serious injury and 15 people sustained minor injuries. The aircraft sustained minor damage. The flight was operating under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 as a scheduled international passenger flight from Murtala Muhammed International Airport (LOS), Lagos, Nigeria, to Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), Dulles, Virginia.
About 1 hour and 5 minutes prior to the event, inflight data showed a left inertial reference unit (IRU) failure. About 55 minutes later, the data indicated a right IRU failure. According to flight data recorder data, at 00:30:57, the autopilot disconnected automatically, the flight crew took over manual control, and the master caution and master warning were recorded. Altitude excursions began at this time. Three seconds later, the autothrottle disconnected. At 00:31:14, a stick shaker activation was recorded. Twenty seconds later the autopilot was reengaged for one second, then disconnected automatically again. At 00:40:30, the airplane started a right turn back toward Lagos. At 00:44:39, the autopilot was reengaged and remained engaged until final approach into LOS.
Altitude excursions from 36,000 mean sea level (msl) feet lasted for about 12 minutes, reaching a maximum altitude of 36,203 and a minimum altitude of 35,577 feet msl. At the time of these altitude excursions, meal service was being conducted in the cabin and injuries resulted.
The flight crew elected to perform an air turn back and returned to LOS where the airplane landed uneventfully. Emergency responders met the airplane upon landing and transported injured persons to a nearby clinic.
The flight recorders, IRUs and attitude heading reference units (AHRUs) were removed from the aircraft in Lagos and flown to IAD on February 3, 2025. The NTSB took possession of these components at IAD and transported them to NTSB headquarters for readout and testing. The flight data recorder was successfully downloaded. The cockpit voice recorder with 2 hour recording capability was read out, and it was found that the accident event had been overwritten.
The NTSB’s investigation is ongoing.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/01/united-airlines-b787-lagos-washington-declares-emergency-with-over-245-passengers/
https://businessday.ng/aviation/article/passengers-injured-as-us-bound-flight-declares-emergency-returns-to-lagos/
NTSB
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/n27903#38d80b1e
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 23 June 2013 | N27903 | United Airlines | 0 | Houston-Intercontinental Airport, TX (IAH/KIAH) |  |
non |
Media:
Please thank God for me. Last night we had a harrowing experience on United flight fro. Lagos to Washington, DC. The plane was spiraling out of control, lost its navigational and other tools. We had gone past Abidjan, and were initially to make an emergency landing in Ghana pic.twitter.com/aKqTlUfCRL
— Benjamin Amaechi 2 (@2_amaechi) January 24, 2025
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 24-Jan-2025 15:55 | ASN | Added |
| 25-Jan-2025 08:27 | ASN | Updated [Embed code, Narrative, ] |
| 28-Jan-2025 10:14 | ASN | Updated [Narrative, ] |
| 18-Mar-2025 18:21 | ASN | Updated [Damage, Narrative, Accident report, ] |
| 31-Mar-2025 14:04 | ASN | Updated [Narrative, Accident report, ] |
| 31-Mar-2025 14:04 | ASN | Updated |
| 11-Apr-2025 20:31 | Captain Adam | Updated [Time, Location, Source, Damage, Narrative, ] |
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