A United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong made an emergency landing after a burning smell filled the cabin.
A United spokesperson told Business Insider in an email statement that UA 869, a Boeing 777 aircraft carrying 336 passengers and 15 crew, returned to SFO “to address a burning rubber smell in the cabin.”
“The flight taxied to the gate where emergency personnel met the aircraft,” the statement said, adding that passengers alighted normally and would be taken to Hong Kong on another aircraft later on Tuesday evening.
According to data from the flight tracking website FlightRadar24, the flight took off from SFO at around 1:15 p.m. local time. It was delayed by more than 90 minutes before it took off.
It returned to SFO after just one hour in the air, per FlightRadar24. The flight duration from San Francisco to Hong Kong is about 15 hours and 30 minutes.
A passenger on the plane, Vincent Goh, told Business Insider that about 30 minutes into the flight, he saw smoke billowing from the aircraft outside his window, and passengers around him were panicking.
Goh, who works at a Cantonese publishing house, said the crew told passengers that the flight would be returning to SFO because the pilot had smelled smoke, and that the fire department would be notified.
An SFO representative said that the airport did not have any information about the incident and directed Business Insider to United’s media relations contact.
Representatives for the San Francisco fire department did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
In February, a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Columbia, South Carolina, turned back after its pilot reported smoke in the cabin. It turned back after only 5 minutes in the air.
In October 2024, a Frontier Airlines flight from San Diego caught fire as it landed in Las Vegas. The cabin crew had detected smoke in the cockpit earlier in the flight.
