U2 singer Bono had an inflight scare on Wednesday when a door on the private aircraft taking him from Dublin to Berlin flew off and plummeted at least 15,000 feet to the ground, losing two suitcases from the luggage compartment in the process.
Germout Freitag, an official with the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation, told CNN that there were two pilots and five passengers (including Bono) on the plane. He said that the ground crew discovered the missing hatch soon after the aircraft landed at Berlin Schonefeld Airport at 12:26 a.m. on Wednesday, 11 minutes after it blew off.
"The ground crew realized the door was gone and two suitcases had fallen out," Freitag said. "Officials have not yet located the two suitcases or the hatch door, but they have been able to pinpoint the area where they are likely to have landed by the radar."
Acknowledging that this sort of incident "was not common," Freitag said he guessed that the hatch had not been properly sealed, but that the bureau had launched an investigation to determine the exact cause. "The investigation will take at least six to eight weeks and will be greatly hampered if the door is not located," Freitag added.
"He was extremely lucky," a source close to the U2 singer told The Daily Mail. "The plane could have gone down."
The band is in Berlin to receive a Bambi entertainment award.