Boeing Facing More Issues as Wing Slat on United Airlines Plane Fails

Boeing dealing with more questions after wing damage on plane.

Still reeling from the January 5 incident in which a door panel blew off an Alaska Airlines plane midflight, the Boeing Company is now facing another crisis.

The wing of a Boeing-manufactured United Airlines flight came apart and forced it to be diverted and make an emergency landing.

Flight 354 was on its way from San Francisco to Boston and was diverted to Denver. There were no injuries reported.

The problem happened on a February 19 flight.

One passenger took a video of the flight. He said a new plane awaited Denver passengers to take them on to Boston.

A United Airlines spokesperson confirmed the incident.

“On Monday, United flight 354 diverted to Denver to address an issue with the slat on the wing of the aircraft,” the spokesperson said. “The flight landed safely and we arranged for a different aircraft to take customers to their destination, which arrived in Boston later that night.”

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.

Boeing’s manufacturing and safety protocols have been heavily scrutinized. The Boeing 757-200 plane was in a different family of airplanes than the beleaguered 737 Max 9 jets.

Passenger Kevin Clark wrote on social media that he was sitting right above the wing and that, at one point, the pilot came to look at the damage.

“He goes behind me and I was kind of sleepy, so I wasn’t paying much attention at that point, but then he 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 in a different plane,'” Clarke said.