Washington, United States | An American woman got the surprise of her life when an emergency escape slide fell off a Boeing 767 and into her yard.

"We just heard a loud bang and the house shook and so I went to see what was going on," Andrea Self, who lives in the Phoenix, Arizona suburb of Mesa, told AFP.

"When I opened my front door, I saw what looked like a silver tarp lying there, but it had like a sulfur smell so I called the police," she said.

The slide, which fell some 2,800 feet (853 meters), landed on an awning and damaged a tree in her yard, the 31-year-old said.

"I was just kind of in shock when it happened," Self said. 

The US Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) confirmed Friday that the plane, which belonged to Atlas Air, lost its over-the-wing escape slide on Wednesday afternoon.

The slides are used to evacuate an aircraft quickly in the event of an emergency.

"Only the slide had deployed. The door remained attached to the aircraft," FAA spokesman Ian Gregor told AFP.

He added that the plane "landed without incident" and that only the flight crew was on board.

The FAA is investigating why the slide deployed, he said.