Yet another United Airlines plane departing San Francisco International Airport experienced system failure on Friday — the second within the past few days.

This Airbus 320 jet was headed to Mexico City, before an issue with the aircraft's hydraulic system, prompting an emergency landing at LAX, per the Chronicle. The plane reportedly took off from San Francisco around 1:00 p.m., and actually flew into Mexican airspace before doubling back to Los Angeles around 5:00 p.m.

United officials said that there were three hydraulic systems on the plane (some were backups), but an issue arose with one of the systems. After touching down at LAX, United rescheduled the Mexico City-bound passengers on another flight a few hours later, according to ABC7. There were 105 passengers and five crew members on board.

However, this latest incident comes after a United Airlines flight out of SFO lost a tire Thursday morning, and another United flight from Hawaii experienced engine failure before landing at SFO on Monday. The crew declared an emergency over the engine failure about an hour before landing, but it landed safely.

In fact, at least five United Airlines-involved incidents have occurred this week. Besides these three at SFO (which is a United hub), passengers were evacuated from a United flight after the plane rolled off the Houston airport runway Friday, plus the engine of United jet headed to Florida from Houston caught on fire midair, prompting an emergency landing, on Monday.

RELATED: Japan-Bound United Airlines Flight Out of SFO Loses Tire During Takeoff, Gets Diverted to LAX [SFist]

Feature image via Unsplash/Sung Jin Cho.

After being denied permission to board a connecting American Airlines flight in Phoenix on Wednesday, Los Angeles local Yolanda Yarbrough allegedly struck a gate agent in the face — and was later arrested by Phoenix police on “suspicion of assault.”

It’s common, even science-backed knowledge these days that face coverings help mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Perhaps the new litmus test, too, for how deep someone’s wells of empathy go is their ability to comply with social-distancing and mask-wearing norms — especially when they’re about to board a commercial airplane. Alas, one Angeleno recently failed said trial in a particularly bombastic fashion.

As reported by The Arizona Republic and ABC7, 47-year-old Yolanda Yarbrough of Los Angeles was a passenger on Wednesday’s American Airlines flight 2027 from LAX to Phoenix, where she was scheduled to connect on another flight to Las Vegas. Though, after the forty-something refused to wear a face covering on the first flight, crew members flagged her travel itinerary and prompted Yarbrough be denied service if she continued to not comply with American's policy on mask-wearing.

When it came time to make her connecting flight at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Yarbrough refused and, instead allegedly decided to hit the gate agent making this demand on the head and over the face — all while spewing a harangue of profanities.

Per both news outlets, Yarbrough was later arrested at the airport by Phoenix police on “suspicion of assault.”

"After arriving into Phoenix and being informed that they would not be able to take their connecting flight to Las Vegas, the individual became irate and struck an American team member in the terminal," said Curtis Blessing, a spokesperson for American Airlines, to The Arizona Republic.

"Law enforcement was requested and since this is now a law enforcement matter, we would refer additional questions to the Phoenix Police Department,” Blessing continued, noting that the employee was not injured in the swift brawl near Gate A11.

The Phoenix Police Department (PPD) responded to Terminal 4 on a “report of an assault” — which later led to Yarbrough being arrested and booked at a local county jail on “suspicion of assault,” according to PPD.

"Officers contacted the victim who informed officers that the suspect had struck him with her hand on his face," Sergeant Mercedes Fortune, a PPD spokesperson, added in a statement emailed to the Nevada newspaper.

It’s unclear as to whether or not Yarbrough has been released from jailv, but, nevertheless, American Airlines says she’s banned from flying on the airline "pending further investigation," and is on its “refuse [service] list.”

The Centers for Disease Control still advocates that staying home is the “best way to protect yourself and others from COVID-19,” and that proper social distancing is difficult to uphold on crowded flights — making it all the more necessary to don some sort of face covering aboard an airplane.

Related: UCSF Scientist Documents Completely Full United Flight From Newark to San Francisco

Plane Travel Slowly Returns, With Masks, Distancing, and Some Virus Profiteering

Image: Noah

Nope - not an early performance by the Blue Angels, but two similar, less blue F-18's will be pulling "practice military maneuvers between the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges from 2:30 to 3" this afternoon, according to the Appeal. Good to know our armed forces are working out their gameplan for when the North Koreans actually come for us and it's not just some PR stunt. Anyway, your tower is gonna get buzzed any moment now.

[SFAppeal]

A plane heading to Australia "was forced to make an emergency landing at San Francisco International Airport early Tuesday after an engine exploded in flight over the Pacific," reports KTVU. (In the esteemed words of Rachel Zoe, shut the front door!) The plane, carrying 212 passengers, "had departed SFO around 11:10 p.m. and had been in the air for about 45 minutes when passengers heard a loud bang and felt the plane vibrate," prompting the emergency landing.

The explosion left a massive hole in one of the engines. Luckily, all passengers and crew members landed safely without injury.

An American Airlines flight has been grounded at SFO after a bomb threat. According to the Transportation Security Administration, reports CBS 5, "the threat was made against American Airlines Flight No. 24 — which was destined for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York." The airport police "received a threatening phone call" just before the flight was about to takeoff.

The plane was moved to a a remote tarmac for safety reason. Crew members and passengers were "escorted off the plane and were being interviewed and re-screened while airport police swept the plane itself for any suspicious devices."

Update: The flight was grounded for a hijack threat. "Two people were detained on a plane that was grounded at San Francisco International Airport on Thursday after authorities said the jetliner was the target of an apparent hijacking threat."

Passengers sent Twitter messages from inside the plane.

A flight into SFO was diverted to Colorado Springs on Saturday because a guy got drunk and ornery at the back of the plane and was demanding more booze. Apparently, this situation was a serious enough national security risk that two F-16s had to be deployed to provide an escort to the plane in its emergency landing. WTF, people. Couldn't the flight attendants just have slapped this guy, or rufied him, or something? KRON4's full coverage of this event, after the jump.

According to KCBS Radio, a small "two engine" plane "took off and crashed" at the Hayward airport. We'll update as soon as we know more.

Update 12:44 p.m.: CBS 5 says the plane "crashed at the Hayward Executive Airport near a hanger and is on fire."

Update 12:48 p.m.: KTVU News at Noon reports that the two-engine plane "crashed right after takeoff at 12:25" for "unknown reasons." No word yet of any injuries or fatalities.

Also, Julie Haener describes the twin-engine Beechcraft Air as the "Mercedes-Benz" of small planes, which immediately makes us yearn for one.

UPDATE: ABC7 has some rather unexciting surveillance footage of the crash.

There were plenty of predictions this past spring that the H1N1 virus was going to come back to bite us in the ass this winter, and last week a White House advisory panel made some dire predictions of a "worst case scenario" in which half the country could get infected, 1.8 million could end up hospitalized, and 90,000 could die -- which would be more than twice the average for a normal flu season. And as we've seen, this flu has been striking many in the 30- to 45-year-old range who may have a pre-existing condition such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, or obesity -- some scientists believe the virus hasn't affected older people in greater numbers due to some pre-existing immunity from an earlier strain of the flu, perhaps from the early 1960s or before. Hopefully if you have any of these pre-existing conditions, if you're preggers, or if you have school-aged kids, you'll run out and get flu shots in October, and the rest of you will wash your goddamn hands twenty times a day and STAY HOME FROM WORK if you show any symptoms. This ain't no SARS! (Perhaps try one of the stylish animal masks above from Samiraboon.)

Also in the news, Rachel Maddow had it; Stanford is seeking people for a swine flu vaccination trial in which they are experimenting to stretch the number of vaccines available using a chemical adjuvant; and airlines like Virgin America have been taking precautions for flu season, such as providing anti-bacterial wipes and sanitizing gel for passengers, face masks for the sick, and removing pillows and blankets for daytime flights -- providing only wrapped, sterile items for red-eyes only.

On a Southwest flight bound for St. Louis yesterday, a mentally-estranged gentleman whipped out his penis, punched a female passenger sitting next to him, and then disrobed. Egads. According to Mercury News, it was quite the scene. Coming in at "a good 300 pounds," the man, who was wearing an Oakland A's baseball cap, "had hit a lady in the mouth," recounts passenger Jim Scanlon, who was lucky enough witness what went down. "He was yelling but not making any sense. Then he hit or slapped another woman who was sitting next to her husband, and he hit him on the top of the head. A flight attendant came running up the aisle, but he faked a swing at her, and she ran back to the back of the plane," he said. "Another two crew members came toward him. He was totally out of his gourd." No kidding. After nearby passengers tried to calm the distraught man, he got naked. Of course. (Don't believe us? Take a look at this picture snapped by a passenger.) The flight was then rerouted back to Oakland Airport. Darius Chappille, 21, who had an "outstanding arrest warrant on drug-related," was taken unto custody.