On May 3, American Airlines flight 3729, with seventy-one passengers and four crew members aboard, made an emergency landing at Birmingham International Airport due to a wing fracture.
Passengers were told that the aircraft suffered from “severe turbulence” on the flight, which caused a part of the right wing to detach and break off. The pilot managed to land safely. No casualties or injuries were reported.
The plane departed from Charleston International Airport in South Carolina and was en route to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
According to a preliminary Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) incident report, a post-flight inspection of the aircraft built in 2016 discovered “a piece of the right winglet missing.”
Winglets are the upward-curving appendages on the ends of an aircraft’s wings that improve fuel efficiency and maneuverability and minimize induced drag at the tip of the wings. Most newer planes are equipped with winglets.
The Envoy Airlines Embraer 175 airplane was traveling at 36,000 feet and roughly 450 miles per hour when it abruptly veered southwest of Birmingham, according to flight tracker data.
“The flight landed without incident at BHM shortly after 6:45 p.m. (local time) and taxied to the gate under its own power,” Derek Walls, an American Airlines spokesman, told The Dallas Morning News in an email. “Upon arrival, the aircraft was taken out of service for evaluation by our maintenance team and all customers were transferred to another aircraft, which departed BHM for DFW last night (May 3).”
A passenger from the flight tweeted photos of the team working on the American Eagle jet after it landed at the Birmingham Airport.
“I was on the flight,” he said. “Surprisingly smooth flight and landing after the fact.”
Passengers were placed on an alternate flight that evening.
The current condition of the aircraft is unknown.