US investigating after United flight loses emergency slide

Flight 12 from Zurich touched down in Chicago without inflatable slide - which was found four miles away in resident's backyard

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on Monday evening that it was investigating when happened when a flight landed in the midwest but was discovered to be missing its emergency evacuation slide.

The inflatable slide, so familiar in theory to millions of passengers from the safety-briefing videos that precede take-off - but which most hope they will never have to see, let alone use, in real life - was discovered on the ground.