The NTSB has released its final report into an evacuation that involved a United Airbus A319 at Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) in February 2025. The narrowbody twinjet, which bears the registration N837UA, was departing the Texan hub for LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in New York City with 107 passengers and five members of crew on board when it had to perform a high-speed rejected takeoff on runway 15R.

This maneuver was said to have been executed at a ground speed of around 115 knots, with the pilots subsequently reporting an engine failure and asking for fire trucks to meet the aircraft. With smoke reportedly being emitted from the right-hand turbofan, an evacuation was carried out. Now, however, the NTSB’s final report into the incident highlights an array of irregularities that ultimately proved to disrupt this crucial safety procedure.

One Of The Engines Was Still Running During The Evacuation

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A summary of the NTSB report by the Aviation Herald paints a picture of passenger panic and chaotic communications. According to the NTSB, the cabin crew were the ones that took the decision to initiate the evacuation, which was done using the jet’s slides and resulted in no injuries to any of its occupants.

However, a key failure on their part was that they did not activate the evacuation alarm or “maintain coordinated communication with the flight crew,” which meant that the pilots were initially unaware of the unfolding evacuation. As such, the left-hand engine initially remained running during the evacuation, which could have posed an ingestion risk. However, the pilots were able to shut it down upon learning of the evacuation. The NTSB said:

“Because the evacuation alarm was not activated, there was a delay in the flight crew’s awareness of the cabin evacuation, which contributed to the left engine running during slide deployment.”

Passenger Noncompliance Hindered The Procedure

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While the commencement of the evacuation without informing the flight crew was undoubtedly a mistake on the part of the United Airlines cabin crew, it was a mistake that was made in a chaotic environment that was made unnecessarily more stressful by passenger noncompliance. Indeed, the NTSB notes that, while passengers were instructed to remain seated following the aircraft’s rejected takeoff, some did not follow these directives.

Instead, according to the NTSB report, “multiple individuals began shouting, ‘fire on the engine, let me get out,’ specifically referring to the right engine.” Naturally, this caused panic among other guests, with many standing up and even beginning to retrieve their personal belongings. The cabin crew attempted to keep the passengers calm, but were met with an aggressive response, with one passenger telling them to “open this door now!”

Flight attendants can only properly assess the situation if guests remain seated, but with passengers being “panicked, fearful, and acting irrationally,” this became an impossible task, hence the premature evacuation. The poor behavior and noncompliance of the passengers came to an ugly end when “three male passengers pushed past FA1 and went down the 2L slide before it had fully deployed“, causing it to deflate and become unusable.

The Aircraft Is Back In Service Today, But Its Initial Resumption Wasn’t Incident-Free

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According to present fleet data made available by ch-aviation, N837UA is 25.1 years old, having first flown in March 2001. It was delivered to United the following month, and it has remained at the carrier ever since. Today, it seats 126 passengers: 12 in domestic first class and 114 in economy class (of which 36 have extra legroom). Data from Flightradar24 shows that it has been deployed exclusively on domestic routes in the past week or so.

While N837UA’s operations have been punctual and uneventful of late, this can’t be said for its initial return to service after the incident in Houston. Indeed, as reported by Simple Flying at the time, just over a month later, March 2025 saw the very same jet divert to Boise while flying between San Francisco and Bozeman. The reason for this redirection was a reported mechanical issue, which required a replacement A319 to be sent to Boise.