A United Airlines Boeing 767 plane lost its emergency evacuation slide in mid-air Monday – and it ended up in the backyard of a home near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, officials and a witness said.
Patrick Devitt lives in the neighborhood where the slide came down, several miles from the runways at O’Hare. He told CNN affiliate WLS his father-in-law and son were inside their home and heard a boom in their backyard around 12:15 p.m. CT. Devitt’s father-in-law walked outside, saw the slide in the backyard and told Devitt’s son to call 911.
Devitt was on his way home from work at the time. When he got to the house, he dragged the slide from his backyard to the front of the home. He said the large piece of equipment damaged the roof of the home and a kitchen window screen, WLS reported.
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“When it’s all stretched out,” Devitt told the Chicago station, “it’s larger than a small car. It’s a very, very big piece of equipment that fell.”
Maintenance workers at O’Hare discovered the plane was missing its slide after it landed, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. United Airlines said, “We immediately contacted the FAA and are working with our team to better understand the circumstances around this matter.”
The Chicago Police Department said it responded to the incident in the 4700 block of North Chester Avenue but deferred questions about the investigation to the FAA, the lead agency.
In 2019, a slide fell off a Delta flight landing at Boston’s Logan International Airport. It, too, fell in a residential area. There were no injuries.
CNN’s Steve Almasy contributed to this report.