United Airlines passenger who witnessed plane's wing 'come apart' mid-air shares harrowing experience on 'Fox and Friends'
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Passengers aboard a United Airlines flight en route to Boston from San Francisco on February 19 were in for a harrowing experience as one of the wings of the Boeing 757 airplane began to "come apart" mid-air. The flight was diverted to Denver as a result.
Airplane passenger Kevin Clarke, who managed to capture the wing damage on his phone from inside the airplane, appeared on the February 21 episode of 'Fox & Friends' to talk about the incident with co-host Griff Jenkins.
Passenger Kevin Clarke's experience aboard the flight
Shortly after takeoff, Clarke said that he experienced "the most violent shuddering and shaking" for a few seconds before he fell asleep. After waking up several minutes later, he witnessed a pilot walking down the aisle and going past him.
"He looked out the window, went back to the cockpit and came on the PA system, and said, 'We're going to be diverted to Denver. There's some minor damage to… the front of the wing," he stated.
"So I immediately threw my window open to look at the wing and the trailing edge of the strut was totally… destroyed like you see in a picture."
"At that point I'm like, well, that's not a little damage, but… the United pilot's competent enough to get us to Denver... I guess we're on our way," added Clarke.
Statement from United Airlines
According to Fox News, United Airlines released a statement on February 20, mentioning that the Boeing 757-200 with 165 passengers aboard landed in Denver the previous day to "address an issue with the slat" on one of its wings. Slats are movable panels on the front or leading edge of the wing and are used during takeoffs and landings.
The plane reportedly made a safe landing in Denver, and the passengers were put on a different flight which arrived later in the day to Boston.
The airline did not reveal the reason for the damage to the aircraft wing, as the Federal Aviation Administration stated that it had taken up the investigation into the matter.
The mid-air scare comes at the heels of the Alaska Airlines incident of the previous month, where a Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliner lost a door panel while flying over Oregon.
