A man standing outside his Massachusetts home talking to a neighbor was nearly struck by an evacuation slide that fell from a Delta Air Lines plane flying overhead on Sunday.
According to WCVB.com, Wenhuan Huang was in his Milton yard when the six-foot-long evacuation slide crashed through his Japanese maple tree and landed just a few feet from where he stood.
Huang said the bag was very heavy and could’ve killed him and his neighbor if it hit them.
After identifying the fallen item as an evacuation slide thanks to the Boeing insignia, Huang reached out to the local police department who contacted the Federal Aviation Administration.
Evacuation slide from Delta Air Lines flight 405 falls into front yard of Massachusetts home. https://t.co/OS3QVHtfyU pic.twitter.com/91cIxOct77
— Breaking Aviation News (@breakingavnews) December 2, 2019
FAA officials said the slide came from Delta Flight 405, which landed safely at Logan International Airport after a journey from Paris to Boston. The pilot of the plane noted a loud noise as he was approaching the facility and a post-flight inspection revealed the slide was missing.
“Delta is investigating an inflatable over-wing slide that was retrieved following an aircraft’s landing into Boston’s Logan Airport,” a Delta spokesperson said in a statement. “The flight landed without incident and taxied to the gate under its own power.”
As a result of the incident, the FAA and Delta have launched formal investigations into the event and the plane is undergoing a full inspection.
Milton is positioned along a busy flight path into Logan airport. In 2016, the body of a 16-year-old from North Carolina fell from the wheel well of a plane, as it was believed he had crawled inside as a stowaway.
