diff --git a/src/core.js b/src/core.js
index fe5dbc6bf..4047170eb 100644
--- a/src/core.js
+++ b/src/core.js
@@ -922,7 +922,7 @@ jQuery.extend({
 		if ( fragment ) {
 			for ( var i = 0; ret[i]; i++ ) {
 				if ( jQuery.nodeName( ret[i], "script" ) ) {
-					scripts.push( ret[i].parentNode.removeChild( ret[i] ) );
+					scripts.push( ret[i].parentNode ? ret[i].parentNode.removeChild( ret[i] ) : ret[i] );
 				} else {
 					if ( ret[i].nodeType === 1 )
 						ret.splice.apply( ret, [i + 1, 0].concat(jQuery.makeArray(ret[i].getElementsByTagName("script"))) );
diff --git a/test/unit/core.js b/test/unit/core.js
index ef36c4f78..1ec3487d0 100644
--- a/test/unit/core.js
+++ b/test/unit/core.js
@@ -899,7 +899,7 @@ test("append(String|Element|Array<Element>|jQuery)", function() {
 });
 
 test("appendTo(String|Element|Array<Element>|jQuery)", function() {
-	expect(6);
+	expect(7);
 	var defaultText = 'Try them out:'
 	jQuery('<b>buga</b>').appendTo('#first');
 	equals( jQuery("#first").text(), defaultText + 'buga', 'Check if text appending works' );
@@ -915,6 +915,9 @@ test("appendTo(String|Element|Array&lt;Element&gt;|jQuery)", function() {
 	jQuery([document.getElementById('first'), document.getElementById('yahoo')]).appendTo('#sap');
 	equals( expected, jQuery('#sap').text(), "Check for appending of array of elements" );
 
+	reset();
+	ok( jQuery(document.createElement("script")).appendTo("body").length, "Make sure a disconnected script can be appended." );
+
 	reset();
 	expected = document.querySelectorAll ?
 		"This link has class=\"blog\": Simon Willison's WeblogYahooTry them out:" :