A United Express flight was reportedly forced to divert after what appears to be a small fire in the window enclosure.
United Express Flight 5469 was operating a flight from Denver International Airport (DEN) to Palm Springs International Airport (PSP) on January 2, 2025 when it was forced to divert to St. George Regional Airport (SGU) in Utah. Video posted to social media appears to show a small fire inside one of the window housings on the aircraft. I’m far from an expert on these things but the “flame” appears to be flashing in the same pattern each time. I’m hoping someone who knows more than me will chime in here as I’m not sure how this is even possible.
@anderson_teaches_4th Glad it landed safely! #unitedairlines #fire #plane ♬ original sound – Lindsey Anderson
This is a very strange incident as the fire would have to be located inside the window housing itself. If it was in the cabin it could have easily been extinguished and, if it was on the outside of the aircraft, it would have been extinguished almost immediately due to the wind.
The flight was being operated by a roughly nine year old Embraer E175 aircraft, registration N152SY, and the aircraft has been on the ground in St. George since the incident occurred. According to FlightRadar24. United Express sent a second E175 to St. George so passengers could continue on to their destination. Passengers ended up arriving in Palm Springs roughly four hours behind schedule.
The flight was being operated by SkyWest on behalf of United Express. It is worth noting that St. George, Utah is home to the headquarters of SkyWest Airlines.
I have reached out to SkyWest for comment on the incident and will update this post if I receive a response.
Tip of the hat to joepercussion1 for flagging this.
Summary
A small fire appears to have occurred in the window housing of a United Express Embraer E175 aircraft flying between Denver and Palm Springs. The flight diverted safely to St. George, UT where a second aircraft was brought in to bring passengers to their final destination. In all my years of flying I’ve never seen anything like this and I’ve reached out to SkyWest, the operating carrier, for additional information.
