If you’re someone who is a bit of a nervous flyer, you probably know that you’re not alone. Plenty of people experience anxiety on totally normal, every day flights.
So, watching part of the plane’s wing break away during a flight would probably be pretty alarming to almost everyone.
Kevin Clarke was traveling on a Boeing 757 from San Francisco to Boston when the pilot wandered up next to his seat.
“I wasn’t paying much attention at that point, but then the pilot goes back to the cockpit and he comes on the PA and says, ‘We’ve discovered we have some damage on one of the front flaps and we’re going to divert to Denver and put you all on a different plane.”
He filmed the area with issue as the plane made an emergency landing – some of the wing had been torn up and was visibly flapping.
Clarke said he did hear an “incredibly loud vibration” during takeoff, and a fellow passenger (@octopus_hug) said the same thing.
“Sitting right on the wing and the noise after reaching altitude was much louder than normal. I opened the window shade to see the wing looking like this. How panicked should I be? Do I need to tell a flight crew member?”
This is what they saw… yikes!
None of the passengers were harmed, but that’s not really the point.
Or at least, not the whole point.
Boeing aircraft have been under fire following several jarring and scary incidents in recent months. One had a door fly off mid-flight, another got a crack in the cockpit window while in the air, and another caught on fire.
Other incidents include a man spewing blood all over passengers before dropping dead and a passenger getting a lap-full of maggots raining down from a luggage compartment.
And sure, things happen all the time. Though they can be scary and potentially dangerous, they are also typically remedied with skilled intervention.
Still, I think I’m going to be a little more apprehensive than ever before stepping aboard a flight.
And I was one of those non-anxious flyers to begin with!
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