A Raleigh, North Carolina, family awoke Wednesday morning to an unusual sight in their driveway: a large piece of an airplane.
According to WNCN-TV, the family discovered what turned out to be a wing flap, blocking their vehicle’s exit. Police were called around 8:30 a.m., and it didn’t take long for investigators to connect the mysterious object to a Delta flight that had landed earlier that morning at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
The Delta aircraft, a Boeing 737-900ER with 109 passengers and six crew members on board, had departed from Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport and arrived in Raleigh around 1:15 a.m. after a delay caused by thunderstorms.
After landing, ground crews noticed something was off: a section of the left wing’s trailing edge flap was missing.
“Delta is fully supporting retrieval efforts and will cooperate with investigations as nothing is more important than safety,” a spokesperson told USA Today.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) later confirmed that the wing flap found in the Raleigh driveway belonged to Delta Flight 3247. It was removed from the property around 12:30 p.m., and the FAA has launched an investigation into how and when the part detached.
“No one on the ground was hurt,” WRAL-TV reported. But the neighborhood is densely populated, and the potential for injury was real.
“It’s amazing when you consider how many people are usually out and about here,” said Susan Reed, who works nearby. “We really dodged a bullet on this one. Let’s just hope it doesn’t happen again.”
Aviation attorney James Crouse told WNCN the incident, while concerning, didn’t appear to compromise the flight’s safety.
“Even if it came off a smaller aircraft—which was my first assumption—I don’t think it affected the landing or overall safety of the flight,” he said.
The FAA’s investigation is ongoing.
The FAA is investigating after part of a wing flap from a Delta plane was found in a driveway in North Carolina. The airline said it is cooperating with the investigation. @WhitJohnson reports. https://t.co/QzCTi77E1a pic.twitter.com/y1wK8jHSsL
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