10,000-Foot drop, pilot injured: Boeing 737 windshield cracks mid-air
The incident occurred on October 16, during flight UA1093, which was carrying 140 passengers and crew.
A United Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight travelling from Denver to Los Angeles was forced to make an emergency landing after its windshield cracked midair, injuring one of the pilots.
The incident occurred on October 16, during flight UA1093, which was carrying 140 passengers and crew. The plane had been at 36,000 feet when a mystery object unexpectedly cracked the multilayered windshield and injured the pilot.
According to reports, the aircraft descended to 26,000 feet before safely landing at Salt Lake City International Airport. Passengers were later rebooked on another aircraft, a Boeing 737 MAX 9, and reached Los Angeles after a six-hour delay.
Why Did The Windshield Crack?
Windshield cracks, while rare, do happen in aviation. But details surrounding the cause and the pilots' injuries make this case an unusual one.
Images shared online allegedly show burnt marks on the cracked windshield and bruising on one pilot's arm. This means that it was not a routine structural crack.
The aircraft was around 322 kilometres southeast of Salt Lake City when the crew spotted the damage and decided to divert. The pilots quickly followed emergency procedures, descending and landing safely.
Heather Ramsey, a college student who had been a passenger on board, told ABC News that she noticed concern from flight attendants around 50 minutes into the flight. She recalled the pilot announced, “The aircraft has collided with an object and window in the cockpit has shattered, so we need to make an emergency landing in Salt City Lake.”
The damaged plane remained in salt City Lake for three days before being flown to Chicago Rockford International Airport for extensive repairs.
Aviation enthusiasts believe that space debris or a small meteorite might have caused the impact, based on the scorch marks and unusual damage pattern on the windshield.
Typically, aircraft windshields are designed to withstand bird strikes and major pressure changes, but an object travelling at high speeds could easily breach the threshold.
United Airlines confirmed that no passengers were injured and described the pilot's condition as minor bruising. The airline has not yet commented on what caused the crack.
Windborne Systems, a long-duration smart weather balloon company released a statement on Monday, Oct.20, explaining that the mystery object that cracked the plane’s windscreen could have been one if their weather balloons. “At 6 am PT Monday morning, we sent our preliminary investigations to both the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and are working with both organizations to further investigate this incident.” The statement read. “We are grateful that, to our knowledge, there were no serious injuries and no loss of pressurization,” the organisation continued.
“We are working closely with the FAA on this matter. We immediately rolled out changes to minimize time spent between 30,000 and 40,000 feet,’ they added. “These changes are already live with immediate effect.”
“Additionally, we are further acceleration our plans to use live flight data to autonomously avoid planes, even if the planes are at a non-standard altitude.” The statement concluded. “We are also actively working on new hardware designs to further reduce impact force magnitude and concentration.”
Source: External
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