(NewsNation) — Passengers on United Airlines Flight 354 braced for the worst after part of the plane’s wing broke off midflight on Tuesday.
“All of a sudden, I heard this violent vibration like I had never heard before,” passenger Kevin Clarke said.
The plane carrying 165 passengers was traveling from San Francisco to Boston on Tuesday when Clarke captured the moment the aircraft’s wing started to “come apart” in midair.
“My husband Kevin’s United Flight from San Francisco to Boston just made an emergency landing in Denver. The wing was coming apart in the air! Everyone is safe thank God,” Clarke’s wife, Kimberly Clarke, posted on Facebook.
Kevin 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.
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.
Clark began checking the wing repeatedly until he decided that he just couldn’t look anymore.
The flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Denver. Nobody was hurt as a result of the damaged wing and the plane was able to make a safe landing.
Once the United Boeing 757 plane landed in Denver, maintenance crews rushed to inspect the wing’s damage.
Passengers switched to another aircraft and continued to Boston, but not without a time delay. Kevin Clarke landed at Logan Airport three hours past his scheduled arrival time, according to local news station WFXT.
However, Kevin Clarke said he was just glad to have arrived at his destination safely.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday it is investigating the incident.
The incident comes at a time of heightened passenger jitters after last month’s blowout of a door panel on an Alaska Airlines jetliner flying over Oregon. The National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report that bolts designed to prevent the panel from moving were missing on the Boeing 737 Max 9 jet.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
