United pilot to passengers: We're turning around because our plane's too big

E175s have landed here many times but only with American that I have seen. I assume because this was a United Flight which I have never seen have a E175 here they probably did not have a tow equipment for it. KCHA has had 777s, and even the presidential 747. They make it seem like the airport is to small when its Uniteds ground equipment issue.

okay, not trying to be a smartbutt, but can anyone definitively tell me what is unique to the E175 that warranted a 'wave-off' at this particular airport? Did the Brazilians come up with some sort of bizarro ground power port? Or is it more of a paper-logistics issue "ground crew was not checked out on connecting the tug to the E175, only the E190 and E145ER" or, was it a ground equipment issue? "your tow bar is not long enough, pal" (...surely dispatch or the PIC would have said "I don't recall flying one of these into here before". Either way, they pissed away a fair amount of money, jet-A, and more money. Hopefully this will pop up on someones performance review, so its frequency of occurrence will stay low.

The title is kind of misleading, the Plane was not too big.... A better title would have been: "We're turning around because the station can't handle our plane!"

Someone in "Skywest's SOC" really made a blunder! This was totally preventable.

Line service may not have had the equipment to service tow and fuel the plane.

Looking at the tracking info Ken provided, perhaps the pilots were only VFR trained and couldn't see the state of TN yet alone the airport....

Reminds me of trying to fly from LAS to DEN on Pioneer when the airline dispatched a plane too small to accommodate the booked passengers.

United didn't have enough credit on their fuel card for the Embraer???😜

Flightaware tracking page
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL5277/history/20181016/1923Z/KORD/KORD

interesting mistake..most airlines rampers understand basic push back and baggage loading/unloading as commuter planes do not very that much..the issue is usually the jetbridge accommodation for the height/length of the plane ..airlines do on occasion borrow or lend equipment,and the station managers charge each other for it..airlines do not cross utilize employees,but in cases of unfamiliar aircraft,usually there is a supervisor who does handle the situation...

I would think a quick call to AA operations and a borrowed tow bar would do the trick. Belt loaders are all pretty much the same as are the headsets and hand signals! A United supervisor on hand to oversee everything and the job gets done. Airlines do help each other out.

Fire the dispatcher. This is his/her screw-up.