A large concrete manhole at the end of one of the runways at Houston Intercontinental Aiport ripped the main landing gear off a United Airlines Boeing 737MAX airplane that slid off the end of the runway and into the grass last month, federal accident investigators have revealed.
In a preliminary accident report published by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Thursday, it was also revealed that the veteran Captain, who has worked for United for nearly 37 years, felt that the brakes weren’t slowing the plane down as much as he expected.
All 160 passengers and six crew members escaped from the four-year-old aircraft after United Flight UA2477 came to a rest in the grass at the end of the runway when the left-hand landing gear collapsed.
Flight 2477 HAD departed Memphis as scheduled and, after an uneventful flight, landed as normal on runway 27 at IAH. The Captain told NTSB investigators that after touchdown, he deliberately…
