By David Propper
A Chicago household received quite the scare when an emergency slide from a United Airlines plane landed in their backyard Monday, according to officials and the homeowner.
The piece of equipment fell from a Boeing 767 that was arriving at O’Hare International Airport in the Windy City Monday afternoon.
Homeowner Patrick Devitt told WLS-TV that his son and his father-in-law heard a “boom” shortly after noon, with the evacuation slide smacking into part of the house.
The slide damaged the roof, downspout and a window screen.
“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,” Devitt told the station. “It’s a very, very big piece of equipment.”
No one was injured, for which Devitt was thankful.
“I’m stunned a little bit. I’m just glad that everybody is safe and okay,” he said. “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 discovered an emergency slide didn’t reach the airport after the plane, filled with 155 passengers and 10 crew members, landed, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The plane was arriving from Switzerland.
United said it was trying to figure out how the slide became detached from the plane.
The FAA is also probing the incident.
“We immediately contacted the FAA and are working with our team to better understand the circumstances around this matter,” United said in a statement.
With Post wires
