Bill Abbott / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Archive United Boeing 787-9 at San Francisco, March 2017; not the diverted aircraft
United Airlines flight UA168 from Tel Aviv to Newark landed in Athens after diverting, according to United’s own flight-status page.
The airline’s flight-status detail page, checked at about 8:20 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, showed: “Landed, taxiing to the gate – Diverted to Athens, GR (ATH).” United listed the actual departure from Tel Aviv as 12:42 a.m. local time on Monday, November 9, compared with a scheduled departure of 12:50 a.m.
United’s page displayed a 2:55 a.m. arrival estimate for Athens. That was an estimated field, not a confirmed touchdown time; the separate status message confirmed that the flight had landed.
Flightradar24’s flight-history page listed the Tel Aviv-Newark service as “Diverted to ATH” and identified the aircraft as a Boeing 787-9, registration N24993.
In a later check at about 10:10 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, Flightradar24 listed the Athens-Newark continuation as “Unknown,” with no actual departure time. The earlier 3:38 a.m. Athens departure estimate was no longer displayed. The tracker did not confirm an onward takeoff or a revised Newark arrival time.
The ADSB IQ network’s emergency-squawk history, checked at about 8:38 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, recorded squawk 7700, which it labels “general emergency,” for callsign UAL168 and registration N24993. The network listed the first observation at 00:44:01 UTC on November 9 and the latest at 00:48:53 UTC, equivalent to 7:44:01 p.m. and 7:48:53 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, November 8. Its last listed position was 37.8233, 23.8480 at an altitude of 2,500 feet.
That record is tracker data, not a finding of the cause. The cause of the diversion has not been verified for this report. United’s arrival listing confirms the Athens stop; it does not explain why the flight diverted.
Update, 10:10 p.m. Eastern: United’s flight-status page now listed an actual Athens arrival of 3:02 a.m. local time on Monday, November 9, and the status “Arrived Gate 7 Minutes Late – Diverted to Athens, GR (ATH) (Aircraft maintenance inspection).” The status identifies a gate arrival, not a separately confirmed runway touchdown time. The airline’s maintenance-inspection notation does not identify the underlying problem or establish a specific cause of the diversion.
This report will be updated as additional verified information becomes available.
JBizNews Desk | Aviation
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