Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have determined that a failure in two components of a navigation system aboard a United Airlines 787 caused altitude deviations during a flight between Lagos and Washington D.C on January 24, 2025, leading to 16 people being injured.
The NTSB found that a left inertial reference unit failed around one hour into the 11-hour journey, followed by a failure in the right inertial reference unit 55 minutes later. This was followed by the autopilot disengaging automatically, resulting in altitude changes.
The inertial reference unit helps to determine a plane's speed, altitude, and heading by tracking changes in its velocity and direction.
These altitude excursions lasted for about 12 minutes, with the plane's altitude fluctuating by up to 626ft. At the time of these altitude changes, a meal service was being conducted in the cabin, this resulted in one crew member being seriously injured and 15 passengers sustaining minor injuries.
The plane made a return to Lagos where it was met by emergency responders, with injured passengers and crew transported to a nearby clinic.
Investigators removed the flight recorders and other equipment from the aircraft in Lagos, which was sent to Washington for the safety board to inspect on February 3, 2025.
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