Boeing just can’t catch a break. From failing safety checks to losing panels and other parts, to the mysterious death of a whistleblower, this is a dark time for the aerospace giant. The cruel hand of fate however has just dealt the company a card that it likely won’t be able to explain away.
First reported by the Huffington Post, last week, Delta Airlines Flight 520 en route to LAX from John F. Kennedy Airport had to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff. The reason? The evacuation slide fell off, triggering an alarm in the cockpit. The flight returned safely to the airport, but the 767’s emergency slide was gone.
Two days later, New York attorney Jake Bissell-Linsk was outside of his oceanfront Belle Harbor, Queens home when the slide washed up on the shore. “I didn’t want to touch it but I got close enough to get a close look at it,” Linsk said. The slide washing up on the shore of Linsk’s home was a random twist: Linsk happens to be a lawyer at Labaton Keller Sucharow, a firm that’s currently suing Boeing over the door blow out incident from earlier this year.
The slide didn’t stay on the shore long either. After contacting a photographer who snapped some photos, as well as Delta Airlines, Linsk said that it took about 10 minutes for Delta’s crews to haul the slide away. The airline later confirmed to HuffPost in a statement that it had retrieved the slide. Even if the slide wasn’t retrieved though, it washing up on the shore of Linsk’s home made his job in the courtroom a whole lot easier.