United Airlines — questions reported by pilots

Describe your greatest professional achievement as a pilot.

Describe a time when you demonstrated United's core values in your professional life.

United culture fit?

What does a positive safety culture mean to you as a first officer?

What does operational excellence mean to you personally, and how do you maintain it across a long tour?

How do you balance being a decisive captain with maintaining an open-door culture where the FO feels free to speak up?

Walk me through your career and why you are here interviewing at United today.

What specifically about United Airlines makes it the right fit for your career?

Your FO is new to the 787 and making systematic errors in FMC programming. How do you approach this?

What are the requirements for conducting an RNAV (GPS) approach in Part 121 operations?

Explain wake turbulence avoidance procedures when following a Heavy aircraft on a visual approach.

Complex weather decision?

You are flying a Boeing 737 and receive a dual hydraulic system B caution in the climb. Walk me through your approach.

Explain the requirements for alternate airport fuel in Part 121 domestic and international operations.

Explain how RVSM airspace works and what happens if you lose RVSM approval during cruise at FL350.

What are the ICAO Category A, B, C, D aircraft approach speed considerations and why do they matter?

A passenger report has reached the cockpit that another passenger is behaving erratically and may be a security threat. What is the crew's process?

Your CA dismisses your concern about a weather deviation request, saying the ride will be fine. How do you handle it?

You observe a gate agent boarding passengers more quickly than usual, causing the door-to-pushback time to compress dangerously. You are still completing checklists. What do you do?

Building crew trust and psychological safety?

A gate agent is arguing with a passenger on the jet bridge during boarding over an oversized carry-on. The argument is delaying departure. What do you do?

Your FO disagrees with your call to divert due to weather and argues the destination is likely to improve before arrival. What do you do?

You and your CA have a persistent disagreement about workload sharing during approach. How do you resolve this?

You hear an unusual noise from the cargo compartment shortly after takeoff. The CA dismisses it as normal. What do you do?

Tell me about a time your situational awareness of a developing situation allowed you to prevent a serious problem.

Tell me about a time you challenged a decision made by someone above you in the chain of command.

Tell me about a time you made an error and how you handled it.

Tell me about a time a project or operation you led did not go as planned. What happened and what did you learn?

Tell me about a time you had to work effectively with a crew member whose style was very different from yours.

Captain decision you'd handle differently?

Tell me about a time you mentored or coached someone to improve a safety-relevant behavior.

Tell me about a situation where you had to make a quick decision under significant time pressure with the right information available but not enough time to process it fully.

Your anti-ice system fails in known icing conditions at FL200 with no alternate routing available for 45 minutes. What are your options?

You are on approach to ORD in IMC when the tower clears you to land but your TCAS issues an RA to descend. What do you do?

You discover a fuel imbalance exceeding limits after takeoff. Walk me through managing this situation.

You are on a transpacific flight 4 hours from the nearest divert point when a passenger has a confirmed cardiac event. Walk me through your decision-making.

During cruise your aircraft experiences an uncommanded roll that requires significant aileron input to maintain wings level. What are your actions?

You are approaching IAD in IMC and receive a windshear alert at 500 ft AGL. What do you do?

You are holding at EWR at 5,000 ft in IMC with 30 minutes of fuel above the hold. The field goes below minimums. What do you do?

On a flight from SFO to ORD you encounter severe turbulence that injures a flight attendant. Describe your subsequent actions.

United fleet and operational challenges?