An emergency slide that fell from a Delta flight just a few minutes after takeoff has been recovered from the Atlantic Ocean in New York City.
The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation said that the airline recovered the slide on Sunday in a jetty near Beach 131st Street in Queens, about 10 miles from where the flight took off Friday at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
“As nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and people, Delta flight crews enacted their extensive training and followed procedures to return to JFK,” Delta said in a statement about the diverted plane issued Friday.
The company said that the plane landed safely and “it was observed that the emergency slide had separated from the aircraft,” after returning to a gate.
The company confirmed the recovery of the slide Monday and referred to its earlier statement.
Flight returned due to alert crew
Flight 520 to Los Angeles returned to JFK after the flight crew saw an indicator light related to the right overwing exit and heard a “non-routine” sound near the right wing.