Another plane falls apart in the sky

A piece from a engine took out a chunk of pavement on a Missouri road after it fell off an airborne Delta Air Lines MD-88 yesterday. The aircraft, which had just departed St. Louis Lambert International Airport, shed one of its engine's tail cones that was about 18-by-20-inches or the size of a small wastebasket according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Tony Molinaro, a spokesman for the FAA, said Delta Flight 989 had just departed with 114 passengers when the flight crew heard a loud bang followed by an engine failure. The aircraft returned to STL and landed safely. This follows two 757s and a 767 shedding panels in flight earlier this year. What's the lesson here? Be sure to look up when you're outside. There may be an airplane about to fall on your head.

photo credit: Ivan Cholakov

(St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

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767 Panel Falls Off In Flight

A skin panel of a Boeing 767 fell off a short time after takeoff on a American Airlines flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Paris recently. The pilot noted that he heard a loud noise and felt some vibrations, having no idea what could be causing it, yet continued the flight on to Paris without incident. Come to find out the panel covering air conditioning components had fallen off. Oops. Oh yeah, and as standard airline language reads -- "the aircraft was never in danger."

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