Passengers on a Delta Airlines flight from New York to Los Angeles were stunned Saturday when an inflatable emergency slide deployed inside the plane during an unscheduled landing in Salt Lake City.
The flight from JFK to Los Angeles International Airport with 168 passengers on board was diverted to Salt Lake City International Airport due to a maintenance issue. Delta said in a statement that the Boeing 767-300 was on the ground when it accidentally skidded.
The airline said the sudden drop was not caused by a slip.
“The first time you see an emergency chip deployed by accident inside the plane,” one passenger tweeted With a picture of the ramp blocking the plane’s runway.
Delta said in the statement that a crew member was taken to hospital for evaluation and later discharged. No details were immediately available about the reason for the publication.
The passengers changed to a different plane for the last leg of their trip to Los Angeles. That flight landed Saturday night at LAX airport.
The slats are designed to quickly deploy and inflate in an emergency, allowing passengers to exit the aircraft during an evacuation. They are packaged and stored inside commercial aircraft doors or fuselages and are automatically deployed when the aircraft door is opened in the armed mode.
In March, a Delta passenger was detained at Los Angeles Airport after an on-board emergency exit door opened and caused the emergency glide to activate. The plane was backing out of its gate when the man opened the door.
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