United Airlines: Flight emergency lands after door light starts flashing - amid airline grounding Boeing planes

A United Airlines flight has been forced to make an emergency landing and divert to another airport after an open door light started flashing shortly after the aircraft took off. The incident occurred on Wednesday (10 January) after the flight took off from  Sarasota-Bradenton International at 3.42pm.

The jet was bound for Chicago but had to make an emergency landing in Tampa. United Flight 2434 landed at Tampa International Airport at 4.35pm because a door indicator light had turned on, according to an airport spokesperson. The Daily Mail reports that fire crews responded and more than 120 passengers were evacuated from the plane. 

It comes after an Alaska Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing last Friday (5 January) after its emergency door blew out shortly after take-off. The jet in question, the Boeing 737 Max 9, is also used by United Airlines and the fleet has been grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for safety checks. 

The jet making an emergency landing yesterday was an Airbus A319 and manufactured in 2007 according to FAA records. The plane remained in Tampa until shortly after 6pm when it took off again for Chicago, landing here at around 8pm local time.

United Airlines is continuing to cancel flights in the wake of the nationwide grounding of Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft. Data from FlightAware on Wednesday afternoon showed 204 United flights had been cancelled and the airline has warned that it expects "significant" cancellations today (Thursday 11 January) as well.

In the aftermath of the incident on Friday, Alaska Airlines shares fell 4.3 per cent, while United Airlines shares dropped 2.4 per cent. Both airlines revealed that they found loose bolts inside several other door plugs on their Boeing 737 Max 9 aircrafts. The FAA said the aircraft would remain grounded until it finds each can safely return to operation.