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A Boeing 767 plane flown by Delta Air Lines lost an emergency slide on Friday, prompting it to return to New York not long after taking off, officials said. The flight, Delta Air Lines 520, had left Kennedy International Airport in New York and was headed to Los Angeles when its crew discovered an issue related to the aircraft’s right wing emergency exit slide. Crew members also detected an unusual sound near the wing, Delta Air Lines said. Pilots declared an emergency to air traffic controllers and the flight returned to Kennedy and landed safely, the airline said. After the plane landed, it became apparent that the aircraft’s emergency slide had “separated” from the plane, Delta Air Lines said. The plane was removed from service and the airline said it would “thoroughly evaluate the aircraft.” “Delta flight crews enacted their extensive training and followed procedures to return to J.F.K.,” the company said in a statement, adding that it would “fully cooperate” with retrieval efforts and investigations. It was not clear on Saturday what caused the slide to detach or where it had fallen. The FAA said on Friday that it would investigate what happened. The flight, which had been scheduled to take off at 7:15 a.m., returned to the airport at 8:35 a.m. after its crew reported “a vibration,” the F.A.A. said in a statement. The 176 passengers disembarked and traveled to Los Angeles on a different plane. Slides have previously fallen from planes while midair. In July, an emergency slide from a United Airlines-operated plane crashed into a home near O’Hare Airport in Chicago. In 2019, a slide from a Delta plane fell into a yard in Massachusetts. A spokesman for Boeing referred inquiries about the plane that lost its slide on Friday to Delta Air Lines. That plane, a version of the Boeing 767, was manufactured in 1990.<br/>

Kenya Airways on Friday accused authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) of harassment over the continued detention of two of the airline's staff for alleged customs violations despite a court ordering their release. A senior Kenyan government official said Kenya had also objected to what he said was their arrest and detention. Officers from Congo's military intelligence detained the pair on April 19 for allegedly failing to complete customs documentation related to valuable cargo that was meant to be transported a week earlier, the airline said in a statement. The airline workers have been granted only one short visit by Kenya's embassy staff, Kenya's national carrier said. Congo's government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya said he would give a response later. "We are perturbed by this action targeting innocent staff and consider it harassment targeting Kenya Airways' business," the airline said. Korir Sing'oei, the principal secretary at Kenya's foreign affairs ministry, said the government was committed to protecting its citizens abroad. "Kenya takes great exception to the arrest and detention of its nationals lawfully carrying out commercial activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo by authorities in DRC," he said on social media platform X. "Our Mission in Kinshasa is engaging actively on the matter." At the time of the pair's arrest, Kenya Airways (KQ) had not taken possession of the cargo because the logistics handler was still processing documentation, the airline said. "This cargo was still in the baggage section undergoing clearance when the security team arrived and alleged that KQ was transporting cargo without customs clearance," it said.<br/>