U2 singer Bono had a mid-air scare on Wednesday when the rear door of his private jet plummeted at least 15,000 feet to the ground. The rock star and four friends were aboard the Learjet 60 traveling from Dublin to Berlin when the mishap occurred over Germany, authorities said. The plane landed safely and the two pilots only found out on the ground that the aircraft had lost its door and two suitcases from the luggage compartment.

They told investigators that they noticed a rumble similar to turbulence during a right-hand turn on approach, but that they felt no major change in how the plane was flying. Because the luggage compartment at the back of the plane is not connected to the pressurized cabin, there was no loss of pressure when the door detached. The jet did not suffer any structural damage. The door has not been found. “The aircraft and its rear door are painted black, so the search in the wooded area will be difficult,” said Germout Freitag, a spokesman for the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation. U2 is in Berlin to receive a Bambi entertainment award. After he landed on Wednesday, Bono met with a German lawmaker.

This Learjet 60 is reportedly the plane Bono was on when the rear door fell off in midflight, though investigators have not confirmed that. Courtesy András Soós

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— Carlo Angerer