The tranquility of Monday afternoon in a residential neighborhood near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport was abruptly interrupted when an emergency slide from a United Airlines Boeing 767 fell from the sky. The peculiar piece of equipment landed in the backyard of a house, causing alarm among the residents.
At 12:15 p.m., the occupants of the affected home, an elderly man and his grandson, were surprised by an unexpected crash. The grandfather was the first to discover the unusual object and asked his grandson to call 911, according to the testimony of Patrick Devitt, a local resident and son of the affected elderly man, to local media.
Devitt was returning from work when he learned of the peculiar incident. Upon arriving at the house, he found the emergency slide, an object of enormous dimensions, even larger than a small car when fully deployed, in his own words.
The slide caused damage to the property, including the roof of the house and a kitchen window. Devitt took care of dragging the object from the backyard to the main entrance of the house.
At O’Hare International Airport, maintenance personnel noticed the absence of the slide after the Boeing 767 had landed. United Airlines has stated that it is working with its team to understand the circumstances of this incident and that it has contacted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) immediately.
The Chicago Police Department also responded to the incident but referred any questions related to the investigation to the FAA. This incident recalls a similar event in 2019 when a slide fell from a Delta plane landing in Boston, although, fortunately, in both cases, no injuries were reported.
