A Boeing 767 plane flown by Delta Air Lines lost an emergency slide on Friday, forcing it to return to New York shortly after takeoff, officials said.
The flight, Delta Air Lines 520, had taken off from Kennedy International Airport in New York and was headed to Los Angeles when its crew discovered a problem involving the emergency exit slide of the plane’s right wing. Delta Air Lines said crew members also detected an unusual sound near the wing.
The pilots declared an emergency to air traffic controllers and the flight returned to Kennedy and landed safely, the airline said.
Delta Air Lines said that after the plane landed, it became apparent that the plane’s emergency slide had “separated” from the plane. The aircraft was removed from service and the airline said it would “thoroughly evaluate the aircraft.”
“The Delta flight crew underwent their extensive training and followed procedures to return to JFK,” the company said in a statement. She said she would “fully cooperate” with recovery efforts and the investigation.
It was not clear Saturday what caused the slide to separate or where it fell.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it would investigate what happened.
The flight, which was scheduled to take off at 7:15 a.m., returned to the airport at 8:35 a.m. after its crew reported “vibration,” the FAA said in a statement. 176 passengers disembarked and traveled to Los Angeles on a different plane.
Slides have fallen from planes in the air before. In July, a plane operated by United Airlines crashed into a home near O’Hare Airport in Chicago. In 2019, a slide from a Delta plane fell into a yard in Massachusetts.
A Boeing spokesperson on Friday referred inquiries about the plane that went down to Delta Air Lines. That aircraft, a version of the Boeing 767, was produced in 1990.
