United Passenger Films ‘Wing Coming Apart’ on Boeing Plane, Alerts Crew Leading to ‘Emergency Landing’

• United Airlines Flight 354, which was on its way from San Francisco to Boston, was diverted to Denver due to a damaged wing
• Passenger Kevin Clarke said the wing “fell apart” when the flight took off and warned the crew of the damage
• Another passenger on the same flight posted a photo of the wing on Reddit mid-flight, asking if he should be concerned

A United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Boston on Monday was diverted to Denver due to a damaged wing.

One of the plane’s passengers, Kevin Clarke, took a video of the plane’s torn wing, which his wife, Kimberly Clarke, posted on Facebook.

“It’s about to land in Denver and the wing is falling apart on the plane,” Kevin is heard saying in the video. “It fell apart when we flew to San Francisco, and we were just about to land. I can’t wait for this flight to be over.”

“They have another plane waiting for us,” he adds. “Touch any second and the nightmare will be over.”

In the caption of the video, Kimberly wrote, “My husband Kevin’s United flight from San Francisco to Boston just made an emergency landing in Denver. The wing was disintegrating in the air! Thank God everyone is safe.”

An airline representative confirmed the incident in a statement to PEOPLE.

“On Monday, United flight 354 was diverted to Denver to fix an issue with a wing slat on the aircraft,” the spokesperson said. “The flight landed safely and we arranged for another aircraft to take the clients to their destination, which arrived in Boston later that night.”

Kevin Clarke/LOCAL NEWS X/TMX

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According to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating what caused the problem, Flight 354 landed at Denver International Airport around 5:15 p.m. local time Monday after the crew reported a “possible flap problem.”

The plane, a Boeing 757-200, took off from San Francisco International Airport and was headed to Boston Logan International Airport.

Another of the plane’s 165 passengers posted a photo of a severed wing on Reddit mid-flight, asking, “What’s going on here?”

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“I was sitting right on the wing and the noise after reaching altitude was much louder than usual,” wrote a Reddit user. “I opened the window [shade] see the wing looking like this. How panicked should I be? Do I have to tell the flight crew member?”

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Kevin told NBC Boston that the pilot approached his seat about 45 minutes into the flight to see the damaged wing.

“He’s coming up behind me and I was sleepy so I wasn’t paying much attention at the time, but then he went back into the cockpit and came on the PA and said, ‘We’ve found that we have some damage to one of the front wings and we’re going to divert to Denver and put you all on another plane,’ Clarke said.

The wing damage is the latest in a series of recent incidents involving damaged aircraft causing flight diversions.

NTSB via Getty Images

The front wheel of a Boeing jet fell off shortly before takeoff in Atlanta

An Alaska Airlines flight on a Boeing 737 Max 9 experienced a mid-air plug door explosion in January, forcing an emergency landing in Portland, Ore.

Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty

The Boeing 747 was discovered to have a hole in its fuselage the size of a softball, causing it to make an emergency landing in Miami that same month. That plane was an Atlas Air cargo flight.

Just days later, the front wheel of a Boeing 757 operated by Delta Airlines fell off shortly before takeoff in Atlanta.

The events led to public scrutiny of Boeing’s manufacturing processes and safety practices.

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