United Airlines maintenance workers found that an emergency evacuation slide from a Boeing 767 had gone missing when the plane landed at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport yesterday. CNN reported United Flight 12 flight arrived in the Windy City from Zurich, Switzerland, but the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration didn’t have to look far to find the missing slide because it landed in a residential neighborhood only a few miles away.
Local residents in the Northwest Side of Chicago heard the boom as the massive slide, the size of a small hatchback, slammed into the side of a house and came to rest in a backyard. The slide came down on the 4700 block of North Chester Avenue, just under three miles short of the runways at O’Hare. According to WLS, homeowner Patrick Devitt said that the impact caused superficial damage to his house’s roof shingles, downspout and kitchen window screen. His father-in-law and son were inside the home, and Devitt was driving in from work.
The family called 911, and the FAA arrived at the scene in 30 minutes. Unfortunately, Devitt couldn’t keep the slide to build a cool playground for his son. Two United employees stopped by to retrieve the slide. Devitt told WLS, “I’m stunned a little bit. I’m just glad that everybody is safe and okay. Just, just seeing that in my backyard, like wow. This really happened. It fell off of an airplane and landed in our backyard.” The FAA is investigating the incident to understand why the slide fell from the aircraft.