FAA Investigating After Door Detaches From Plane in Mid-Air Near Las Vegas

The Federal Aviation Administration has launched an investigation after a door broke off a plane in mid-air.

Shortly after taking off from the North Las Vegas Airport on June 3, the pilot of a four-seat Diamond Aircraft DA42 alerted Air Traffic Control about the back door of the plane falling off, according to a new report by Fox 5 Vegas.

“The whole door broke off,” the pilot can be heard in audio obtained by the local outlet.

Air Traffic Control cleared the plane to land, which was only in the air for about six minutes, Fox 5 Vegas reported, citing data from flight tracking site FlightAware.

The FAA confirmed to The Independent that it was “investigating an incident where a baggage door detached from a Diamond DA42 during takeoff from North Las Vegas Airport on June 3.”

This is the second incident in two years in which a Diamond plane lost its door after takeoff out of Las Vegas.

In March 2024, the door of a single-engine Diamond DA40 fell off as a student pilot and supervisor were flying the plane, according to Fox 5 Vegas.

Both Diamond planes have the same out-of-state owner and on-site manager at North Las Vegas Airport.

The plane’s owner told Fox 5 Vegas in response to the latest incident that the manager is primarily responsible for on-site maintenance and that he would look into it further. The manager told the local outlet that the Airworthiness Directives and Manufacturers Service Bulletins “were complied with correctly.”

Aviation attorney Jeff Lustick said Diamond Aircraft planes are “perfect” for training pilots and have become one of the best sellers in North America and Europe.

“Hopefully, we’ll stop seeing this happen in Diamond Aircraft, but this is exactly how the system is supposed to work: the FAA conducts technical analysis. They keep reports. And they look at mechanical trends,” Lustick told Fox 5 Vegas. “This isn’t the only aircraft in the general aviation fleet in the world that has this problem.”

The Independent has reached out to Diamond Aircraft for comment.

It is not just small private planes that have had serious door issues in recent years. A door-plug panel ripped off a Boeing 737 Max 9 jet shortly after takeoff from Portland, Oregon, on an Alaska Airlines flight in January 2024.

An emergency landing was conducted as objects got sucked out of the gaping hole in the plane, but none of the 177 passengers and crew members were seriously injured.

An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board found that four bolts securing the door-plug panel were missing before the newly manufactured plane was delivered to Alaska Airlines.

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun admitted that his company made a “mistake” shortly after the incident occurred, telling employees in an announcement shared online that they have to make sure customers “understand that every airplane that Boeing has its name on that’s in the sky is in fact safe.”