Investigation underway after United flight loses emergency slide.
An emergency evacuation slide fell from a United Airlines plane into a backyard near Chicago O’Hare Airport on Monday afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.
The United Boeing 767-300 landed safely at O’Hare after a trip from Zurich, Switzerland, when maintenance workers realized that an emergency slide was missing from the plane’s side.
The slide was later located in a neighbourhood about four miles east of the airport.
A local Fox News report said that Chicago police officers responded to a call from a residential area in a north-western part of the city and the emergency slide in question was was found in someone’s backyard.
Patrick Devitt, the homeowner who made the discovery, said he dragged the slide from his backyard to the front.
Devitt said his son and father-in-law were inside their home, having lunch in the kitchen, when they heard a loud “boom” around 12:15 p.m.
The slide had hit the house, causing damage to the roof shingles, downspout and a kitchen window screen. Devitt’s father-in-law then walked outside, saw the slide and alerted his son-in-law.
“When it’s all stretched out, like, it’s a little jumbled up. I’m sure, in the picture, from when we dragged it out, it’s larger than a small car. It’s a very, very big piece of equipment that fell,” Devitt said.
Devvitt explained that he immediately called 911, and the FAA arrived within 30 minutes.
A United Airlines spokesperson said that the airline contacted the FAA regarding the emergency evacuation slide and are working with the federal administration to “better understand the circumstances around this matter.”
A spokesperson for Boeing referred all questions to United and the FAA.
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