A United flight en route from San Francisco to Boston (USA) had to be diverted because the plane was literally missing disintegrating a wing. The video recorded by a passenger has gone viral on social media.
A Boeing 757-200 carrying 165 passengers had to make an emergency landing in Denver on Monday night due to a problem at the bar on one of its wings.
Fortunately for everyone, the plane landed without problems and the passengers were loaded onto another aircraft to continue their journey.
It is unknown what caused the damage to the wing slat. Slats are movable panels that are located on the front or leading edge of the wings and are used during takeoff and landing.
The story of a passenger
The passenger who shared the video, Kevin Clarke, told CBS that he became aware of the breakage when he noticed the plane starting to shake. “I felt a vibration that I had never felt before“, She said.
Clarke said it was the pilot who, after confirming what was happening to the wing, announced he would divert the plane to Denver for an emergency landing.
Clarke, the passenger who recorded the viral video.During the trip to Denver, Clarke experienced turbulence and stopped observing the wing from then on. “I was just praying that we made it to the other side of the turbulence“, Be honest.
The Federal Aviation Administration is currently investigating the crash.
A precedent that was horrifying
In recent weeks, the wing of another plane was also the protagonist of an event that sparked terror but, like this one, ended with a happy ending.
The flight VS127 in New York was suspended due to a detail noticed by a passenger on one of its wings.
The incident occurred before a Virgin Atlantic Airbus 330 plane took off from Manchester (UK) bound for the United States. They were the English Phil Hardy41 years old, who realized something was wrong.
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For this reason the Virgin Atlantic flight from Manchester to New York was cancelled. In the end it was nothing, but they should have checked it with more time.
From inside the plane, and when the crew informed the passengers about the safety mechanisms of the flight, Hardy noticed that one of the wings was missing four “fasteners”..
“Just to be safe,” he told a flight attendant, and she immediately called the engineers.
“I’m a good flyer, but my partner didn’t like the information I was telling her and she started to panic, and I was trying to calm her down as much as I could,” Hardy told Kennedy News.
They had to cancel the flight.
The engineers arrived immediately. They climbed onto the wing of the plane and checked with a screwdriver whether the fasteners were in order. And they were.
An airline representative said that although the details noted by the passenger had been looked into, the flight had to be grounded to “have time to carry out additional and preventative technical maintenance checks, which gave our team maximum time to complete inspections”.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.