Emergency slide falls from United Airlines plane onto Patrick Devitt Chicago house as plane was descending for landing leaving home owner startled.
A Chicago man has received the surprise of his lifetime after an emergency slide fell from a United Airlines plane fell onto his house as it was descending for landing at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, Monday afternoon.
The incident happened in the 4700 block of North Chester Avenue on the city’s Northwest Side. No one was injured according to Chicago police.
Home owner, Patrick Devitt told of dragging the slide from his backyard to the front.
‘If it had hit us, we would have been dead…’
Devitt said his son and father-in-law were inside their home, having lunch in the kitchen, when they heard a loud ‘boom’ around 12:15 p.m., when Devitt was on his way home from work.
The slide had hit the house, causing damage to the roof shingles, downspout and a kitchen window screen. Devitt’s father-in-law then walked outside, saw the slide and alerted his son-in-law.
‘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. It’s a very, very big piece of equipment that fell,’ Devitt told Chicago’s ABC7.
Adding, ‘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.’
Family members called 911, and the FAA arrived within 30 minutes.
The FAA said a maintenance crew at O’Hare discovered an emergency slide missing from a United Airlines Boeing 767 that had just landed safely after a flight from Switzerland, and it appears to be the slide in question. In fact, that homeowner said two United representatives on Monday afternoon came by the house to retrieve the slide.
This isn’t the first time a Boeing 767 lost its slide, though it is rare. It happened in 2016 in Phoenix near Sky Harbor Airport and again in 2019 in Boston near Logan Airport.
Speaking to the Boston Herald at the time, a neighbor said: ‘If it had hit us, we would have been dead—it’s that heavy. And if we didn’t die—I hate to think of the alternative.’
Authorities have yet to say how the slide fell off the United Airlines plane as they continue to investigate.
