The last time a jet’s emergency chute made national news, it was a JetBlue flight attendant experiencing an on-plane meltdown. But earlier today, a United Airlines flight that had just boarded at Dulles International outside of Washington, DC, had to be evacuated, which meant Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had to go for a ride down the slide.

“Justice Ginsburg was evacuated safely with the other passengers,” a Supreme Court spokesperson told NBC News.

Also on the flight, intended to fly to San Francisco, was the director of social media for Gannett News Services who wrote on her Twitter account, “Passengers in front of me saw smoke out window and alerted attendants… No serious injuries as far as I can tell. It happened so fast and the attendants were amazing. I’m still shaking as I type this … Hearing of possible broken bones, from the slide landing, but no other serious injuries. They’ve sent us to the admiral lounge to regroup.”

NBC says the chutes were deployed after the pilot reported engine trouble to the air traffic control tower.

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

Passengers on United jet evacuated via emergency chutes [MSNBC]

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