Another Day, Another Boeing Plane Falling Apart

Before air travel, I typically have the following concerns:

1. Losing luggage
2. Sitting next to someone smelly (or a Jehovah’s witness, though those two things are not always mutually exclusive of one another)
3. Turbulence

…but that was before the new trend of planes losing doors, engine covers, slides—you name it. Now, coming in at #4 on my list of concerns is “Am I riding in a Boeing?”

The Daily Wire reports:

Another mid-flight mishap involving a Boeing plane forced a Los Angeles-bound flight to return to JFK International Airport in New York on Friday — this time because the Delta aircraft’s emergency slide fell off.

Delta Flight 520 departed JFK at around 7:30 a.m., but just an hour into the flight the plane’s emergency alarm sounded, and the crew discovered that they had lost the emergency slide, forcing the pilots to abandon the trip to L.A. and return to the Queens airport, the New York Post reported. The crew had also reported feeling a vibration at the time of the incident, according to the FAA.

Authorities were searching for the lost emergency slide as of Friday afternoon, according to the Post. Sources told the outlet that they believe the chute could be in Jamaica Bay, just west of JFK Airport. No injuries were reported from the incident, and the Boeing 767 again departed the airport at around 11:00 a.m.

Friday’s incident is yet another example of a Boeing plane being forced to land after losing part of its equipment mid-air. Earlier this month, a Southwest Boeing 737-800 was forced to make an emergency landing after “several passengers and flight attendants heard something loud hit the wing.” Video taken as the plane was landing showed that one of its engine covers had ripped off.

See, I was under the impression that we were supposed to make sure the plane was secure BEFORE it started careening through the sky at an insane rate of speed. You know, like how you make sure your tires are all aired up before a big road trip?

But apparently Boeing has more of a “wait and see” approach when it comes to plane maintenance.

Pete Buttigieg is really killing it when it comes to “assuring the fitness of US airlines … ”