The biggest aviation scandal of 2024 has, so far, been the viral footage of an Alaska Airlines (ALK) plane flying with a part of its door and window panel blown out seven minutes into a flight from Portland, Ore., to California.
While the pilots were able to divert the flight and land the plane without any injuries, the incident prompted a Federal Aviation Administration investigation and grounding of nearly 200 Boeing (BA) 737 Max for the time it took to tie what happened to a faulty door plug. Boeing shares are still struggling to recover from the incident.
Related: A plane with missing windows accidentally took off (here's what happened)
While this took place on a Boeing 757-200, similarly frightening passenger videos emerged from a United Airlines (UAL) flight from San Francisco to Boston.
'We will touch down at any second and the nightmare will be over...'
A video that passenger Kevin Clarke filmed and later posted on Facebook (META) through his wife's account shows a part of a plane wing shredded and flapping in the wind as the plane makes an emergency landing in Denver.
More Travel:
- A new travel term is taking over the internet (and reaching airlines and hotels)
- The 10 best airline stocks to buy now
- Airlines see a new kind of traveler at the front of the plane
"It came apart when we took off in San Francisco and we're just about on the ground," Clarke is heard saying in the video. "Can't wait for this flight to be over. We've got another plane waiting for us and will continue to Boston. We will touch down at any second and the nightmare will be over."
After Clarke's video went viral on social media, he told local news outlets in Boston that he initially heard “this incredible loud vibration" before the pilot announced that they would need to make an emergency landing.
'You could really see how much damage was done to the wing...'
"You could really see how much damage was done to the wing and to the tip of the flap, and that was my biggest concern, is this going to come apart when we try to land?" Clarke told Boston's WMTV.
United could not be immediately reached for comment on what went wrong with Flight 354 on Feb. 19 but the 165 passengers aboard the plane were all reboarded on a new aircraft that eventually made it to Boston without further incident.
Several other travelers have posted footage from the incident on different social media outlets to shocked reactions from the public.
"Sitting right on the wing and the noise after reaching altitude was much louder than normal," another passenger aboard the United flight wrote in a Reddit post. "I opened the window to see the wing looking like this."
Last November, a similar incident occurred when passengers aboard the British charter airline Titan Airways started commenting that the cabin on their flight from London to Orlando was abnormally "chilly."
A flight attendant started looking around the cabin and noticed that one of the portholes was missing a seal and "flapping in the airflow." The plane had just taken off and was safely rerouted back to London while a later investigation found that the window likely broke due to powerful lights when the plane was used as part of a film set the previous weekend and was somehow missed during the pre-flight check-up.
Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024
