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United flight diverted after mechanical issue posed risk of "flying blind"

A plane that left from Knoxville, Tennessee, and was heading to Houston Thursday was diverted after "a mechanical issue," United Airlines said in a statement, CBS affiliate KHOU reported. Rodney Giles, who said on Twitter his parents were on Flight 4390, tweeted a video of a crew member addressing passengers after the aircraft landed in Dallas. 

"So you may be able to see, we lost two of our screens," a man says over the cabin loudspeaker in the video. "Now if we kept flying, we'd lose them all – eventually – because there's not enough cooling. There's tremendous heat behind those screens."

"If we had continued, eventually, I'd be flying blind," he said. "So, that's why we're in Dallas right now. It is unlikely this aircraft is going anywhere tonight." 

United said in a statement Friday morning that customers aboard ExpressJet Airlines flight 4390, operating as United Express, deplaned normally after the plane landed safely.

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