United B737 near Wichita on Jun 29th 2014, emergency slide inflated in flight

A United Boeing 737-700, registration N24706 performing flight UA-1463 from Chicago O'Hare,IL to Santa Ana,CA (USA) with 96 passengers and 5 crew, was enroute at FL380 about 40nm west of Wichita,KS (USA) when one of the aft door slides deployed into the interior of the aircraft. The crew decided to divert to Wichita using a normal descent and advised that they had received a door light and did not need assistance on the ground. The aircraft landed safely on Wichita Midcontinent Airport's runway 19R about 30 minutes after leaving FL380.

The remainder of the flight was cancelled, the passengers were rebooked onto other flights.

The airline reported all passengers were seated at the time of the slide deployment, no injuries occurred.

The FAA reported the slide inflated in mid flight inadvertently, initial media reports of a passenger opening the aircraft door were false.

The inflated slide in flight (Photo: Taylor Martinez):