Nope, that’s not something thrown at you by your wife. It’s a falling piece of airplane debris.
That was Wissam Beydoun’s first reaction on Monday, until he noticed that the 6×8″ piece of aluminum that had hit him had writing on it: “Aircraft weight on wheels inflaction chart.”
Two concerns here: the man’s safety on the ground, and the passengers’ safety in the plane.
Beydoun thankfully wasn’t injured; just a bump to his shoulder.
As far as tracking down the right airplane goes, that might be tricky. Beydoun reported the fall with the Federal Aviation Administration–first with the national hotline, then with the regional operations center in Chicago. No word yet.
Beydoun tells the Detroit Free Press, “My main concern is to pinpoint this airplane, because it poses a danger if it’s getting ready to fly. From what this part indicates, it has to do with a cover of the wheel mechanism, you know, how the wheels drop down.”
A FAA spokesman said that two or three instances of falling debris are reported every year in the Midwest.
[Thanks, Today in the Sky]