Space debris or hail? Windshield of Boeing plane cracks midair, pilot injured

In a mid-air horror for passengers, a United Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight travelling from Denver to Los Angeles made an emergency landing after a layer of its windshield shattered, injuring one of the pilots.

The incident reportedly occurred on October 16 when the plane was carrying 134 passengers and 6 crew members. It was about 200 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, Utah, at roughly 36,000 feet in the air, when something reportedly hit the windshield. Unverified photos shared on social media show injuries on one of the pilot's hands and arms.

The plane was then diverted to Salt Lake City and all travelers were later taken to Los Angeles on another plane after a six hour delay. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has launched an investigation into the incident, The Dailymail reported.

AirLive quoted the captain saying that he saw an object coming at the last moment and that it appeared to him to be “space debris.” The captain's claim that the aircraft was “hit by a falling object at flight level 360” represents an extraordinary statement that, if confirmed, would mark an unprecedented event in commercial aviation history, AirLive reported.

The airlines initially said “a crack in one layer of its windshield" had appeared as it referred to the multi-ply construction of cockpit windows. Modern aircraft windshields consist of multiple layers of glass and plastic to withstand bird strikes, hail, and pressure differentials.

Reports quoted aviation experts attributing the windshield damage to high-altitude hail as pictures of the plane show the nose of the aircraft having dozens of marks “consistent with hail peppering”.

The investigation of the incident has been handed to the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board and will examine the damaged windshield, flight data recorders and interview the crew.

While space debris theory is floating around, the chances of space debris causing an accident or an aviation casualty are 0.1%, meaning passenger risk is less than a trillion-to-one.

Source: Hindustan Times
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