Private plane carrying U2's Bono has door shear off
A private jet carrying Irish rock star Bono, the frontman of U2, had its baggage door shear off mid-flight during a trip between Dublin and Berlin.
The hatch and bags from the Bombardier Inc. Learjet disappeared over German territory during the flight yesterday, Germany's air accident investigation bureau said. The jet landed safely at Berlin's Schoenefeld airport at 12.26 p.m.
"A door on the plane to the cargo hold became detached, and apparently two pieces of luggage fell out," the bureau said. "Bono was on board. We are investigating the incident."
The Learjet's baggage compartment is located in a rear section that's separate from the passenger compartment, said Paul Hayes, a safety expert at London-based Ascend. Since the hold isn't pressurized, passengers would have been in no danger of being sucked out of the jet when the door opened, he said.
"It happens on average about once a year, somewhere in the world," Hayes said of the luggage-door separation. "Normally it doesn't produce any disaster." Such mishaps generally occur when the locking mechanism isn't properly engaged, he added.
The Irish Daily Mail reported the incident earlier, citing an undisclosed source described as close to Bono, real name Paul Hewson, and adding that no other members of U2 were aboard.
Bombardier spokeswoman Helen Gregory in Belfast said the Canadian company didn't have further information, while calls to Bono's publicist weren't immediately returned.
Formed in Dublin in 1976, U2 are among the biggest musical acts of the past four decades, racking up more than 150 million record sales and winning 22 Grammy awards.
The band recently met with controversy after giving away a new album for free via Apple Inc.'s iTunes, whether the half- billion users of software wanted it or not.
To contact the reporters on this story: Andrea Rothman in Toulouse at aerothmanbloomberg.net; Richard Weiss in Frankfurt at rweiss5bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at bkammelbloomberg.net Christopher Jasper