Delta flight struck by fireworks during Chicago landing on July 4th

On the Fourth of July, a Delta Air Lines aircraft descending into Chicago Midway Airport was struck by a fireworks mortar, carrying 52 passengers through one of the most vulnerable phases of flight. No one was injured, and the plane landed safely — but the incident revealed a quiet tension that exists every Independence Day: the airspace above our celebrations is shared, and the boundaries between festivity and catastrophe are thinner than most people realize. The FAA has opened an investigation, and with it, a broader reckoning about whether the systems governing local fireworks and federal a