An emergency slide detached and fell from a United Airlines Boeing 767-300 as it was making its approach to land at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) on Monday, July 17 2023.
The slide assembly landed in the backyard of a home in the 4700 block of North Chester Avenue, about four miles from ORD airport. No one was injured in the incident.
United Airlines Flight UA12
United Airlines flight UA12, a Boeing 767-300ER registered N666UA inbound to Chicago O’Hare International Airport from Zurich, Switzerland was making its approach in Chicago when the incident occurred just after midday on Monday July 17.
The slide detachment went unnoticed by the crew, and it was only after landing at Chicago O’Hare that maintenance workers noticed the assembly missing.
Footage posted to social media shows the moment the emergency slide fell to earth was captured by a nearby residential security camera.
Inadvertent Emergency Slide Deployments
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating the cause of the slide deployment. United Airlines said in a statement that it is “working with the FAA to understand the circumstances around this matter.”
The slide is designed to deploy automatically in the event of an emergency landing. However, it can also be deployed manually, which may have happened in this case. The FAA has said that it is not uncommon for emergency slides to be deployed accidentally.
In 2014, an emergency escape slide accidentally deployed in the cruise at 40,000 feet on a United Airlines flight enroute from Chicago to Orange County, CA.
In that incident, the emergency slide inflated inside the airplane cabin, forcing the flight crew to divert and conduct an emergency landing in Wichita.
The FAA is continuing to investigate the cause of this week’s slide deployment in Chicago. Once the investigation is complete, the FAA will issue a report on the findings.
The Risks of Slide Deployment
Emergency slides are an important safety feature on airplanes. They allow passengers to evacuate the aircraft quickly and safely in the event of an emergency landing. However, there are also some inherent risks associated with emergency slide deployment.
One risk is that the slide can deploy accidentally. This can happen if the slide is not properly stowed or if the slide’s release mechanism is activated accidentally. If an emergency slide deploys accidentally, it has the potential to cause damage to the aircraft and/or injure passengers.
Another risk is that the slide can inflate too quickly. This can happen if the slide is not properly inflated or if the slide’s inflation mechanism is activated too quickly. If an emergency slide inflates too quickly, it can also result in passenger injury.
The Aftermath of the Incident
According to CNN News, the homeowner whose backyard was hit by the slide, Patrick Devitt, said that he was home with his son and father-in-law when they heard a loud boom. They went outside to investigate and found the slide crumpled in their yard.
Devitt said that the slide caused some damage to his property, but that it was mostly superficial. He said that he was grateful that no one was injured in the incident.
The FAA said that it has dispatched an inspector to the scene to investigate the cause of the slide deployment. Investigators subsequently retrieved the emergency slide assembly, and will be looking at the aircraft’s maintenance records and interviewing the crew members to try to determine what occurred.