On Monday, a family living in Chicago experienced a shock when an emergency slide from a United Airlines plane suddenly landed in their backyard, according to the homeowner and authorities.
The slide was detached from a Boeing 767 that was making its way to O’Hare International Airport in the city. The homeowner, Patrick Devitt, reported to WLS-TV that his son and father-in-law heard a “boom” shortly after midday and subsequently saw the evacuation slide impacting a portion of the house.
The slide caused harm to the roof, a window screen, and the downspout. Devitt also shared how the slide was bigger than a small car – “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,” he said.
Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident; Devitt expressed his gratitude in his statement to the station – “I’m stunned a little bit. I’m just glad that everybody is safe and okay. Just, just seeing that in my backyard, like wow. This really happened. It fell off of an airplane and landed in our backyard.”
Maintenance workers found that the slide had not reached its destination after the plane, which had 155 passengers and 10 crew members, landed, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane had flown in from Switzerland.
United Airlines issued a statement regarding the matter, saying that they were attempting to understand how the slide had become detached from the plane and that the FAA was also conducting an investigation.