United flight from San Francisco to Boston diverted due to damage to one of its wings

Seattle Times ^ | 2.20.2024 | Beatrice Dupuy

[libh8er]

NEW YORK (AP) — A United Airlines cross-country flight was cut short and the jetliner landed in Denver after one of its wings was damaged.

A passenger on the San Francisco-to-Boston flight Monday said he had just put in earbuds and started to doze off when he felt the plane shaking.

“All of a sudden I heard this violent vibration like I had never heard before,” Kevin Clarke said in an interview Tuesday.

Clarke said one of the pilots walked down the aisle of the main cabin, then returned to the cockpit and announced that the plane had minor damage to its right wing and the flight would be diverted to Denver.

Clarke opened his window shade and took video of the damage that was later broadcast on Boston 25 News. The 67-year-old, a ski-race announcer from Maine, was comforted that the pilot believed the plane was good enough to fly, but he began having doubts when the jet hit turbulence.

I was just going to pray that we made it to the other side of the turbulence,” he said.

United said the Boeing 757-200 carrying 165 passengers landed in Denver to “address an issue with the slat” on one of its wings. Slats are moveable panels on the front or leading edge of the wing and are used during takeoffs and landings. Chicago-based United did not say what caused the damage which left pieces of the slat torn away.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday that it is investigating the incident.

[SharpRightTurn]

Sure the pilots will be suspect, and who knows what qualifications for competency were passed over for the mechanics, but you can feel good about having supported “diversity.” (Feel good, that is, right up to the moment of the crash.)

[RckyRaCoCo]

Drone/UFO/man on the wing...

[EVO X]

Looks like a new "DEI" employee, "de-iced" the wing with a hammer...

Looking at that picture again. It seems like a weird place for a bird strike or runway FOD. It seems to me either a bird or runway FOD would be sucked into the engine. Maybe it is structural failure for the 29 year old aircraft. Since the failure occurred at the engine, I wonder if a tool or part fell in to the space while working on the engine..

[StAnDeliver]

Ok different view before disintegration. That's a bird strike, maybe multiple, in the right airspace over the Plains, to slice right through a delta of geese. About 25 feet further in, that would have been a 20-lb bowling ball right through the windshield...

[StAnDeliver]

Whoops. Geese can fly to 20,000, but even that, limits the bird strike to somewhere between Oakland and Stockton ... honk!

[roadcat]

That picture is evidence of Michelle Obama visiting SF. Lost her broom, though.