A Boeing 767 plane operated by Delta Airlines had to make an emergency landing at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York because of a problem with the emergency slide, which detached from the aircraft. The 176 passengers were not injured and boarded another plane the same day.
According to authorities, the landing occurred minutes after the plane took off from the same airport last Friday (26).
Delta Flight 520 left New York for Los Angeles when the crew discovered a problem with the emergency exit slide on the aircraft’s right wing. Crews also heard an unusual sound near the wing, the airline said.
The pilots declared an emergency to air traffic controllers and the flight returned to Kennedy Airport and landed safely, according to Delta.
After landing, it was diagnosed that the aircraft’s slide had detached from the plane, which was taken out of operation and will undergo a thorough inspection, according to Delta.
“Delta crew members followed their extensive training and procedures to return to JFK,” the airline said in a statement, adding that it is cooperating in the investigation of the case.
It was not clear what caused the emergency slide to detach from the plane or where the piece fell. The FAA (Federal Civil Aviation Administration) said on Friday that it will investigate what happened.
Folha Mercado
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The flight, which was scheduled to take off at 7:15 a.m., returned to the airport at 8:35 a.m. after its crew reported “a vibration,” the FAA said in a statement. The 176 passengers disembarked and traveled to Los Angeles on a different plane.
Slides have fallen from planes mid-air before. In July 2023, this object broke free from a United Airlines flight and crashed into a house near O’Hare Airport in Chicago (USA). Four years earlier, a slide from a Delta plane fell into a backyard in Massachusetts (USA).
A Boeing spokesman referred questions to Delta about the plane that missed the slide on Friday. The aircraft involved in the incident was manufactured in 1990.
Boeing is under investigation following problems with 737 Max planes. Two crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed nearly 350 people and raised safety concerns about the planes.
In January, a door cover came loose on an Alaska Airlines flight, exposing passengers to a frightening episode. No one was injured, but pilots were forced to make an emergency landing, and the FAA grounded about 170 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes as a precaution.
Boeing has since said it would make changes to its quality control processes and regulators have pressured the manufacturer to improve safety.
