Honolulu-Bound Flight Diverts to Kona

*** Updated at 3:35 p.m. to include cause of diversion and Kona Community Hospital information. ***

Honolulu-bound United Airlines flight 641 experienced mechanical problems that forced it to divert and land at Kona International Airport Thursday morning, according to officials.

Based on FlightAware data, the aircraft diverted at 8:43 a.m.

Triage tents erected at Kona Community Hospital Emergency Room ambulance bay. Kona Community Hospital photo.

In preparation for a worse-case-scenario, Kona Community Hospital received a notification from the Healthcare Association of Hawai’i that there was potential for an aircraft with mishap. The hospital called a Code Triage and established an incident command center at 10 a.m. Off-duty nurses, doctors, and surgeons were all alerted to the situation and asked to be on-call and the hospital’s triage tents were erected.

“The hospital participates in the National Incident Command System approach to incident management. It’s a very organized way to respond to large scale emergencies,” Eric Willis, the facility’s director said.

***Orginal story posted at 11:45 a.m. ***

United Airlines flight 641 landed at the Kona International Airport Thursday morning after “declaring an emergency,” according to Federal Aviation Administration Pacific Division Public Affairs Manager Ian Gregor.

The flight took off from the Los Angeles International Airport at 8:32 a.m. and was in route to Honolulu when the plane declared an emergency and diverted to the Kona International Airport. The plane landed in Kona at 10:45 a.m., according to information from FlightAware.

Gregor says the plane landed without incident.

The nature of the emergency was not immediately available.

United Airlines was unreachable at presstime. BigIslandNow.com will continue to update as information becomes available.