The Federal Aviation Administration says severe turbulence caused the tip of a wing on an American Eagle flight to break off during a flight to DFW International Airport Tuesday.
The winglet, found at the end of some airliner wings, apparently broke away as flight 3729 flew over Alabama Tuesday on a flight between Charleston S.C., and DFW International. There were 71 passengers and four crew members onboard the plane at the time, says the FAA. Nobody was injured.
“Envoy Air Flight 3729, an Embraer 170, landed safely at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Birmingham, Ala., around 7:15 p.m. local time Tuesday after it encountered severe turbulence,” the FAA said in a statement. The plane was an Embraer 175 regional jet.
While the plane was able to safely land without the part, there may have been some control issues, according to a man who was on the flight.
“I don’t know if there was damage where the wing prevented us from turning one direction, but we descended by circling rather quickly and got on the ground and were greeted by fire trucks,” said Aaron Davenport, Leander.
The turbulence was the first hint of trouble for passengers.
“It felt like we hit something at 35,000 feet,” said Davenport. Davenport looked at the flight tracker and realized the plane was being diverted to Birmingham. That’s when he heard the pilot say they were making an emergency landing. It was only on the ground that Davenport was able to see the tip of the wing had come off.
Between the time the announcement was made and the time they got on the ground, Davenport was able to buy internet access and began texting his wife, who was unaware of the problem.
“I got on there just in time to text my wife that I loved her" Davenport said. At that point it was, like, we’ll see what happens. I didn’t have a warm and fuzzy about it for sure while we were landing.”
Davenport finally was able to call his wife when he landed and fill her in on what happened.
The passengers were put on another plane and flown to DFW International.
For its part, American Airlines issued a statement acknowledging there was an incident but going little further. The company says the flight was forced to make the emergency landing “…due to a potential mechanical issue after encountering turbulence while inflight. The flight landed without incident at BHM shortly after 6:45 p.m. (local time) and taxied to the gate under its own power. Upon arrival, the aircraft was taken out of service for evaluation by our maintenance team and all customers were transferred to another aircraft, which departed BHM for DFW later that night.”
Davenport has a more pointed summation: “It was freaky.”
Related
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow NewsRadio 1080 KRLD