A United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Boston was diverted to Denver on Monday after a passenger allegedly saw the “wing coming apart”.
“Just about to land in Denver with the wing coming apart on the plane,” Kevin Clarke said in a video obtained by CBS News. “Can’t wait for this flight to be over.”
Photos of the damaged wing also appeared on Reddit. “Sitting right on the wing and the noise after reaching altitude was much louder than normal. I opened the window to see the wing looking like this,” user @octopus_hug wrote next to a photo that appeared to show a plane wing with holes in it. “How panicked should I be? Do I need to tell a flight crew member?”
“I’ll be very relieved once we land,” they added.
The Reddit user said that another passenger alerted flight attendants to the problem before all the passengers were put on a different plane that landed in Boston early on Tuesday morning.
A United Airlines spokesperson confirmed that the Boeing 757-200 plane, which had 165 passengers on board, was diverted safely to Denver on Monday “to address an issue with the slat on the wing of the aircraft.”
“United Flight 354 diverted to Denver yesterday afternoon to address an issue with the slat on the wing of the aircraft,” the spokesperson told The Independent in a statement. “The flight landed safely and we arranged for another aircraft to take our customers to Boston.”
Boeing has been under scrutiny since a door panel on a different kind of aircraft, a 737 Max 9, blew off during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.
Several passengers on board were injured in the incident, which grounded all Boeing 737 Max 9s and prompted investigations by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), National Transportation Safety Board, into the aircraft manufacturer and Spirit AeroSystems, which made the doorplug.
Reports released since have suggested the plane did not have the critical bolts it needed to keep the doorplug in place when it left the factory.
Following the incident, Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, which operate 79 of the planes, said they, too, found loose bolts on some of their aircrafts.
Earlier this month, the head of the FAA pledged to use more people to monitor aircraft manufacturing and hold Boeing accountable for any safety rule violations.