United flight to O.C. makes emergency landing after slide deploys
Passengers aboard a Santa Ana-bound United Airlines flight got a big scare when an emergency slide inflated 38,000 feet in the air.
A United flight from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport bound for Orange County’s John Wayne Airport made an emergency landing in Kansas on Sunday night after a slide deployed mid-air.
Flight 1463 left O’Hare about 8:36 p.m. Central time, according to the airline.
“Scariest flight of all time,” passenger Taylor Martinez said on Twitter.
The flight had 96 passengers and five crew members on board, according to the airline. Passengers tweeted pictures of the massive deployed slide inflated inside the cabin.
Passenger Mike Schroeder told the Associated Press he heard a hiss and pop. He says he turned around and saw the plane’s emergency evacuation slide inflating inside the plane.
Schroeder said the pilot announced to passengers that they would be landing at Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport, AP reported. He said passengers remained calm and took pictures of the slide with their phones.
Schroeder told AP that after landing, the pilot looked at the slide and said he had never seen that happen before.
“No one was injured and the flight landed safely,” Christen David, an airline spokesman, said in an email.
The plane landed at Mid-Continent Airport in Wichita, David said.
“We are flying in another aircraft to resume the flight and get our customers to their final destination as quickly as possible,” he said.
It is unclear why the slide deployed.
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