A passenger of a Boston-bound commercial flight made an unusual sighting when he looked out of the window and saw a wing of the plane falling apart midair.
Passenger Kevin Clarke said he boarded United Flight 354, a Boeing 757-200 that was departing out of San Francisco and took off on schedule but was told by the pilot that the plane would be forced to divert to Denver, Boston 25 News reported. Then, he saw the problem with his very own eyes. The slat of the plane's right wing was "coming apart" and missing noticeable chunks.
"I’m like bird strike? That’s not good," Clarke told the outlet. "We take off, I heard this loud buzzing noise, and then it faded away so I didn’t think much of it and all of a sudden the pilot is coming back, so I threw my window open, peeked out the window and the whole leading edge of the wing was destroyed."
He was also able to get his cell phone out and record the harrowing moment. "Just about to land in Denver with the wing coming apart on the plane," Clarke narrates in the cell phone video. "Came apart when we took off in San Francisco, and we’re just about on the ground. Can’t wait for this flight to be over."
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Upon making the emergency landing in Denver, Clarke and the other 164 passengers of the United flight boarded a new plane.
Clarke ultimately landed at his final destination of Logan Airport about three hours later than scheduled, telling Boston 25 News he was just glad to be alive.
"First there was some panic, but the pilot had come back, looked at it, took some pictures of it, talked to the guys on the ground, said yup, proceed to Denver, shouldn’t be a problem," said Clarke.
"United flight 354 diverted to Denver yesterday afternoon to address an issue with the slat on the wing of the aircraft," a United spokesperson told FOX Business. "The flight landed safely and we arranged for a different aircraft to take customers to their destination, which has since arrived in Boston."
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Clarke told Boston 25 News he thought he saw evidence of bird strikes on planes as he was walking down the jetway in San Francisco. Planes hitting birds is fairly common and the damage they cause is often minimal, though other times the incidents can require repairs.
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Clarke told Boston 25 News he was glad to move on from the situation, which he commended United for handling well.
