A Delta Airlines flight from Salt Lake City to Washington, D.C., made an emergency landing in Denver last Thursday (31), after the plane’s windshield broke in midair.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is now investigating what went wrong to cause the problem, a spokesperson said on Saturday. Without providing further details, the FAA limited itself to saying that there was a maintenance problem mid-flight.
KUTV, an affiliate of the CBS network, reported that the plane, a Boeing 757, was carrying 198 passengers. Rachel Wright, one of the people on the flight, said the Tribulation reported the problem about 90 minutes after takeoff.
Delta spokeswoman Melissa Long said in a statement that there is still no information on when the windshield started to crack or the reason for it. “Out of an abundance of caution, the crew diverted to Denver, and the plane routinely landed,” she said. “Our team worked quickly to accommodate customers on a new plane and we sincerely apologize for the delay and inconvenience.”
A cardiologist who was on the flight en route to a medical conference shared a photo on Twitter that allegedly shows the windshield broken but still attached to the frame. “Apparently, it was spontaneous,” wrote Kirk Knowlton.
Pilot John Cox, who worked for US Airways, explained in an article published in the USA Today newspaper in 2019 that the plane’s control panel windshields can crack due to heating problems.
They would be more likely to crack when the plane is climbing than in other phases of the flight, although reports of similar experiences at other altitudes have already been recorded. “While this happens occasionally, it is infrequent,” Cox wrote.
