Last week, a passenger plane from Delta Air Lines, manufactured by Boeing, took off from JFK Airport in New York. As it barely gained altitude, an inflatable emergency slide somehow fell off the plane.
Two days later, the slide was found on coastal rocks, right near the home of lawyer Jake Bissell-Linsk. Earlier this year, his firm filed a major lawsuit against Boeing, ironically, over safety issues with these planes.
The lawsuit was filed because, in January 2024, a door plug on a Boeing 737 Max 9 detached mid-air. This incident forced Alaska and United Airlines to cancel hundreds of flights, resulting in significant financial losses.
Fortunately, none of the passengers were injured, and the plane managed to return safely to the airport. Later, door defects were found on several other Boeing planes.
Jake Bissell-Linsk discovered a “huge gray-yellow fabric” near the water during a walk. The shore is just a few meters from the backyard of the lawyer’s home, located in Bell Harbor Bay, a neighborhood in Queens, New York.
“I didn’t want to touch it, but I got close enough to take a better look. Our entire lawsuit is about Boeing’s safety issues, and here this slide is, literally right in front of my house,” the lawyer told New York Post reporters.
Judging by the photo, the slide could have fallen near any of the hundreds of houses along this shore. But someone above decided to play a little joke and chose the house of the lawyer who recently sued the corporation.
The emergency slide was soon pulled from the water by summoned workers.
Technical issues on flight 520, which was headed from New York to Los Angeles and from which the slide fell, were noticed right after takeoff. Reports mentioned some vibration, after which the plane returned to JFK Airport, where it was discovered that a panel on the wing was open, and the emergency slide had fallen out.
“Boeing’s greed has led to an increased risk of manufacturing defects, making the company’s new planes unsafe,” claims Bissell-Linsk’s law firm.
“But we have yet to decide whether to link this incident to our case,” the lawyer added.
