Residents of Milton Massachusetts could have been forgiven for thinking that online retailer Amazon had gone crazy with jumbo deliveries when a big inflatable slide fell from the skies on Sunday.
Yet it wasn’t a giant Amazon drone that had dropped its bundle on a local front garden but a Delta Air Lines flight traveling from Paris to Boston.
The emergency evacuation slide fell off the Boeing 767 accompanied by a loud noise as the aircraft was on approach to Boston Logan International Airport and about four nautical miles from the runway threshold.
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The aircraft went on to land normally but not before it gave a resident tending his garden a rude shock.
Fortunately, no-one was injured.
Milton resident and surprised recipient of the slide Wenhan Huang told CNN he realized the slide was from an aircraft when he saw the words “Boeing” printed on it and quickly rang the police.
"It's kind of crazy," Huang told CNN affiliate WCVB. "Who could know there's something coming from the air and drops into my yard, right? It's pretty heavy. You can't even carry it."
The airline is investigating how and why the slide fell off but it has also re-ignited a political debate about the number of flights over Milton and nearby communities.
US Representative Stephen Lynch said he had asked for a briefing on the incident from the Federal Aviation Administration and airport operator Mass Port.
“The escape slide did not inflate but instead came down in a compact bundle weighing about 100 pounds,’’ Lynch said.
“We are fortunate that no injuries or damage occurred.”
Lynch said he expected a report by the end of the week and added that the incident illustrated the vulnerability of towns beneath busy flight paths.
“We cannot expect the community of Milton and surrounding towns to live in fear of debris falling from the sky,’’ he said, adding he recently met FAA administrator Steve Dickson to discuss the number of flights “plaguing Milton and nearby communities with relentless airplane noise and pollution”.
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