UAL201 Diverted To MDY

Last evening, United's UAL201 (HNL-GUM) diverted to MDY due to a fire in the cockpit that disabled some flight instruments. N210UA (c/n 30216, l/n 264), a 777-222, was abeam MDY when the fire was detected, and the crew decided to land there, instead of trying to return to HNL. United sent N779UA (c/n 26941, l/n 35) to MDY from HNL as UAL2068 a few hours later, to pick up the passengers at returned to HNL as UAL2104.

Because MDY is on a National Wildlife Refuge for sea birds, and part of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, flights in and out of MDY must be done in the night hours to prevent bird strikes.

We came across this through Airliners.net's Civil Aviation Forum.

Watch FlightRadar24's radar track of UAL201.

KITV has a link to photos taken by passengers while at MDY in this article.

The most recent emergency landing at MDY was in June 2011, when a Delta Air Lines 747-400, N669US, en route to KIX from HNL as DAL277, suffered a crack in the windshield.