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US aviation authorities are investigating how a United Airlines Boeing jet lost an external panel before landing safely in Oregon.
The BA.N 737-800 jet landed at Medford Airport at around 1:45pm on Friday local time, carrying 139 passengers and six crew after departing from San Francisco, the The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.
The FAA said a post-landing airline inspection of the 25-year-old airplane revealed a missing panel.
United said it would also investigate and said no emergency was declared because there was no indication of the damage during flight.
"We'll conduct a thorough examination of the plane and perform all the needed repairs before it returns to service," the airline said in a statement.
Boeing did not comment, instead directing questions to United Airlines.
According to FAA records, the plane was built in late 1998.
The Rogue Valley Times posted a dramatic photo of the airplane with the missing panel.
Traffic was briefly halted at the airport to search for the panel.
In the aftermath of an Alaska Airlines ALK.N Boeing 737 MAX 9 mid-air emergency prompted by a door plug blowout, Boeing aviation incidents are getting more attention.
Boeing has been under heavy regulatory scrutiny following the January 5 Alaska Airlines incident, with probes into the company's safety and quality standards in its production process.
This week, Chilean LATAM Airlines garnered national attention when its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner flight from Sydney to Auckland suffered a "technical fault", causing the aircraft to suddenly drop and passengers to be "thrown out of their seats".
Reuters