SAN FRANCISCO — Over the course of a week, six United Airlines flights have had problems. Some of them took off and had to turn around; others had to make emergency landings.
Two of those flights left SFO and were diverted to LAX. One plane had a hydraulics problem, and the other lost a wheel during takeoff. That wheel crushed one car and damaged others in an SFO employee parking lot.
“That’s never a good look for anyone,” admitted pilot Scott Miller.
Miller is a pilot for a major airline and an aviation lecturer at San Jose State University. While it was a turbulent week for United, he said it was likely a mix of chance and newfound attention on airline incidents.
“I don’t see a rise in the incidents that are occurring. What I’m seeing is increased interest in the incidents that are occurring,” he said.
He said pilots are trained to deal with the unexpected and uncommon.
“We spend 90% of our training time working on things that may only occur 1% of the time,” he said. “Even…
