A Northwest Airlines 757-200 with 193 passengers and crew declared an emergency in flight yesterday morning after a 3- by 2-ft panel, which included underlying hydraulic lines, ripped from the rear upper section of the right wing, hit the window at passenger row 28 and then damaged the right side of the horizontal stabilizer.
According to the US Federal Aviation Administration, the pilots notified air traffic controllers of the event at 9:10 am Monday morning when flying over Dagget, California, about 20 minutes out of Los Angeles. Flight 332 was enroute to Detroit.
The pilots declared an emergency and landed safely on Runway 25 at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. There was no emergency evacuation, though the aircraft was towed to the gate from the runway, according to the FAA.
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The event follow other high profile incidents where wing panels departed aircraft in flight, including a US Airways 757 enroute from Orlando to Philadelphia on March 22 and an American Airlines 767 enroute from Dallas to Paris, France, earlier this month.
Northwest was not immediately available for comment.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence News
Source: Flight International
