BOSTON — Passengers on a Boston-bound flight were happy to be on the ground Tuesday morning after their plane's wing began to “disintegrate” in midair.
A United flight from San Francisco to Boston was forced to make an emergency landing in Denver, where passengers boarded a new plane.
Kevin Clark landed at Logan Airport three hours later than scheduled. He told Boston 25 News he was glad to be home safe after some nerve-wracking moments in the air.
Clark captured a video of the United Boeing 757 showing the moment it landed in Denver.
“About to land in Denver with the plane's wing blown off,” Clark said as he narrated a cell phone video of the plane touching the runway.
The plane's maintenance crew then rushed to the wing to inspect the damage.
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United Flight 354 was carrying 165 passengers and was supposed to head to Boston, but had to be diverted after part of its wing broke off. Clark told Boston 25 News he thought it was interesting when he was walking down the runway in San Francisco and saw the bird collision shapes.
“I'm like a bird strike? That's not good,” Clark said. “We took off, and I heard this loud noise, and then it died down so I didn't think much of it, and all of a sudden the pilot came back, so I opened my window, and I peeked out the window and the leading edge was destroyed.” For the entire suite.
Boston 25 News reached out to United and they told us that United Flight 354 was diverted to address an issue with the chip on the plane's wing.
“At first there was some panic, but the pilot came back and looked at it and took some pictures of it and talked to the guys on the ground and said yeah, move to Denver, it shouldn't be a problem,” Clark said.
Once in Denver, passengers boarded a new plane. Everyone arrived safely in Boston three hours later than scheduled. Clark told Boston 25 News that he thought United handled the situation well.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates when more information is available.
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