A United Express flight enroute to Houston from Aspen, Colorado, has declared an emergency and is diverting to Austin.
United Express flight UA5971, operated by an Embraer E175, squawked transponder code 7700 in cruising flight as it passed abeam Dallas enroute. The flight is now on diversion to Austin.
00:56 UTC: Approach to Austin (AUS)
United flight UA5971 has continued its diversion to Austin–Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) and is now on descent below 10,000 feet in the early stages of approach.
The nature of the emergency prompting the diversion is not yet known. Flight crew are maintaining transponder code 7700 for emergency landing priority.
01:00 UTC: Landed Austin (AUS)
Having declared an emergency and initiated a diversion while en route to Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport, United flight UA5971 has now landed runway 18R Austin–Bergstrom International Airport.
Flight & Aircraft Data
Flight data shows that United Express flight UA5971 had made a delayed departure out of Aspen Pitkin County Airport (ASE). Actual departure time was logged as 5:02 PM local time on 28 August.
Scheduled departure time for the service was listed as 1:25 PM local time.
Following departure, the flight had proceeded normally, climbing to flight level FL390 for the southerly service to Houston.
Having passed Dallas Fort Worth, flight crew initiated a descent to 10,000 feet before squawking the emergency transponder code 7700.
The flight then continued to the diversion airport Austin–Bergstrom International Airport.
The aircraft conducting the UA5971 service from Aspen was an Embraer E175, registered N110SY. This is an 11.3 year old regional jet belonging to the carrier United Express.