United Airlines canceled an Italy-bound flight Tuesday evening after one of the plane’s wings leaked a massive amount of fuel shortly before takeoff at Newark Liberty International Airport.
Clearer video of the #united #gasleak. How not one crew member saw this is beyond me. Thank god we were lookin out the window at take off. pic.twitter.com/3BDZJ3S4xd
— Rachel (@RachelEPas) June 14, 2017
A passenger on board United Airlines Flight 170 captured video of the incident that shows fuel pouring out of the left wing of the plane.
“That is not normal,” one passenger who witnessed the leak said in the video.
A United Airlines spokesperson told Business Insider the aircraft has been removed from service but did not release information about what caused the spill or how much fuel was lost.
The Daily Mail reports the flight was scheduled to take off 6:55 p.m. Tuesday for Venice but was forced back to the gate where passengers disembarked.
The airline provided hotel accommodation for all passengers aboard the flight and rebooked their travel to a later time.
“While taxiing to the runway yesterday evening, United flight 170 traveling from Newark to Venice, Italy returned to the gate due to a fuel leak, and was later canceled,” United Airlines said in a statement. “We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience. Our team helped provide customers with hotel accommodations for the night and are working to get them back on their way to Venice today.”
United Airlines has had several PR blunders resulting from issues with airline service in 2017. In April, airport security dragged a passenger off a flight because he refused to give up his seat. The following month, a United Airlines ticket agent was caught on camera threatening to cancel a passenger’s ticket for recording a dispute he had with the agent.
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