"How panicked should I be?"
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Another day, another freak incident on a plane — and this time, there's footage.
As NBC 10 Boston reports, passenger Kevin Clarke said he was "kind of sleepy" when the pilot of the Boeing 757 on which he was riding appeared near his seat about 45 minutes into their flight from San Francisco to Boston.
"I wasn’t paying much attention at that point," Clarke told the local news station, "but then [the pilot] goes back to the cockpit and he comes on the PA and says, 'We’ve discovered we have some damage on one of the front flaps and we’re going to divert to Denver and put you all in a different plane.'"
It was during that emergency landing that the man filmed a video of the problem, which was later shared in a public Facebook post by his wife: part of the wing had somehow been torn up and could be seen visibly flapping.
A United flight from San Francisco to Boston had to be diverted to Denver after it was discovered mid-air a portion of the wing was damaged. Passenger Kevin Clarke took this video. What he says he saw before getting on the plane on @boston25 this morning. pic.twitter.com/0GIaOmS46t
— Kelly Sullivan (@ksullivannews) February 20, 2024
Speaking with local reporters, Clarke said he heard an "incredibly loud vibration" during takeoff — and his fellow passenger, identified only by their Reddit username "octopus_hug," seems to have shared that same experience.
"Sitting right on the wing and the noise after reaching altitude was much louder than normal," the user said in a post on r/UnitedAirlines that featured a photo of the wing damage mid-flight. "I opened the window to see the wing looking like this. How panicked should I be? Do I need to tell a flight crew member?"
Not Again
As the airline confirmed to NBC10 and other news outlets, none of the 165 passengers on the 757 were harmed during the incident, and they were rerouted on other flights back to Boston.
All the same, it's still incredibly jarring — especially considering that this is at least the sixth time this year, including three other incidents with Boeing aircrafts, that scary plane circumstances have made headlines.
In January, Boeing came under fire first for one of its doors straight up flying off in the middle of a flight, and again when another of its planes got a crack in the cockpit window, plus when yet another straight up caught fire.
In February, meanwhile, health-related incidents garnered the worst kind of attention when a man died in the air after spewing blood from his mouth and nose on one international flight and one unlucky passenger on a different intercontinental flight had maggots rain down on her from the luggage compartment.
To be fair, weird and dangerous stuff happens on commercial flights all the time — but with so many big stories less than two months into the year, it doesn't seem like a particularly auspicious time to fly.
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