United Flight 1463 Emergency Landing: Plane Reroutes After Slide Inflates in Cabin; Passengers React on Twitter
A United Airlines flight headed to Southern California from Chicago was forced to land in Kansas on Sunday after an emergency slide inflated inside the cabin.
According to The Los Angeles Times, crewmembers rushed to contain the inflating slide aboard flight 1463, which departed from Chicago O'Hare International Airport around 8:30 p.m. CDT and was expected to land after midnight at John Wayne Airport.
After the emergency slide began to unexpectedly inflate on the rear side of the aircraft, the pilot diverted the plane and its 96 passengers to Wichita, descending from 38,000 feet to 19,000 feet in roughly 10 minutes after the incident began.
Panic ensued among the flight's crewmembers, who rushed to the back of the plane to contain the problem, several passengers told various news agencies afterward, The Times reported.
"[There] was a hiss and they just had a panicked look," passenger Diane Modini told KWCH-TV. "They quickly took the cars and ran to the back of the plane. The whole back cabin where they sat was full of the chute."
Susan Finkbeiner told KAKE-TV that she, along with the pilot, were afraid the inflating slides would eventually pop the cabin doors open.
"Eventually, the pilot made an announcement that the plane was OK, but I talked to him after the plane landed and he said he had to descend right away because there was ... a chance the raft would push the door open, so it was definitely a rush," Finkbeiner said.
Modini said she also feared that doors would bust open and cause the plane to lose cabin pressure.
"The first thing that went through my mind is, if the chute opened and it probably popped out the door and we'd lose pressure immediately," Modini said. "But luckily that didn't happen, it just inflated inside."
John Wayne Airport Officials told The Times that the passengers received hotel accommodations in Kansas for the night and would depart Kansas around 10:30 a.m. CDT Monday.
Amidst the panic and confusion, several passengers were still able to pull out their cellphones to snap photos of the inflating slide and post them to Twitter.
According to a tweet by passenger Taylor Martinez, it was the "scariest flight of all time."
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