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Damaged wing

Photo: Kevin Clarke / AP

A United Airlines plane en route from San Francisco to Boston had to be diverted due to a damaged wing.

The Boeing 757-200 with 165 passengers on board landed in Denver to fix "a problem with a slat," the airline said.

It is unclear what caused the damage.

The US Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating the incident.

The plane landed safely in Denver.

According to United Airlines, the passengers had to transfer there to another plane that arrived in Boston later in the day.

A passenger named Kevin Clarke filmed the landing with the damaged wing, the video was published by Boston 25 News, among others.

Clarke told the station he was happy to be home safely after the nerve-wracking moments in the air.

»I thought: bird strike?

"That's not good," Clarke said.

"We take off, I hear this loud buzzing and then it disappears, so I don't think much of it, and suddenly the pilot comes back." He then looked out and noticed that the "entire leading edge of the wing was destroyed."

Boeing is under pressure after an incident in January.

At that time, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 lost a part of its fuselage while flying over the US state of Oregon.

The more than 170 people on board escaped with horror.

And by a lucky coincidence, the two seats right next to the hole in the cabin wall were unoccupied.

Images of the hole in the aircraft cabin went around the world.

bbr/AP