A piece of an aircraft falling off and plummeting thousands of feet to the ground probably doesn’t bode well for people actually on the plane, but it’s also not too pleasant for people on the ground.
A strange-looking triangular object that smashed into a patio in a Shanghai suburb has been confirmed to be a spare part that fell from an airplane flying overhead.
Apparently, though, the piece falling off the plane wasn’t a big deal. Former aircraft designer Zhou Jisheng said the object is from the undercarriage of a Boeing 777, most likely as part of the hatch to the aircraft’s front landing gear. As Zhou says piece is used to restrict air from entering the wheel well in order to make the plane more streamlined, it has no impact on the safe operation of an airliner.
Aviation authorities are now trying to find the specific plane from which the device fell. With the incident occurring around 3am on July 13 in the Shanghai suburb of Songjiang, it should be easy enough to pinpoint airliners that traveled along that flight path at that time.
The object was 70 centimeters long and tore a hole in the patio awning of a Fusheng company.
