Warning: Boeing 767 slides may deploy spontaneously and land in your front yard
An emergency slide deployed from an airplane — while it was in the air — and landed in a front yard in Mesa, Arizona, on Wednesday afternoon.
No injuries were reported and the only damage was to a tree.
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"It was just a loud bang and then the house actually shook," homeowner Andrea Self told local television station AZ Family. She said smelled something like "sulfur burning" immediately after.
A neighbor called 911 and said they had seen an object falling from an airplane. A spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) told Mashable that the slide came from a Boeing 767.
The aircraft, operated by cargo and passenger charter airline Atlas Air, was flying at 2,800 feet and about to land at Sky Harbor Airport when the right over-the-wing emergency slide deployed. The crew members got a cockpit message saying the slide had deployed, and reported the it to local police upon landing.
In December of last year, the FAA proposed a fix to more than 300 of Boeing's 767s after “multiple reports of uncommanded escape slide inflation.”
According to FAA reports, certain valves on the Boeing 767 needed to be replaced that could cause spontaneous deployment resulting in “injury to passengers and crew, damage to equipment, and the slide becoming unusable in an emergency evacuation.”
The agency gave airlines four years to make the fixes.
Only crew was on board the Atlas Air flight.
"It's definitely a blessing that the damage is a tree and not a person," Self said.
Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Cailey studied journalism at SUNY Purchase and french cinema & literature at Paris IV Sorbonne. She is a cynical optimist and Talking Heads karaoke enthusiast. Drop her a line @misscaileyanne
