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A United Airlines flight that was forced to divert to Salt Lake City last week after its windshield cracked may have hit a weather balloon while cruising at 36,000 feet, according to officials.
The dramatic incident unfolded on Oct. 16 as United Airlines flight 1093 was en route from Denver to Los Angeles, according to information provided by the airline.
At some point during the flight, the aircraft hit an object, cracking the windshield.
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FILE – An United Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 airplane departs from Los Angeles International Airport en route to Baltimore on March 30, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
“On Thursday, United flight 1093 landed safely in Salt Lake City to address damage to its multilayered windshield,” the airline said in a statement to FOX Weather. “We arranged for another aircraft to take customers to Los Angeles later that day, and our maintenance team is working to return the aircraft to service.”
Airline officials said 134 customers and six crew members were on board the Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft when the incident occurred.
“So, when the pilot made his initial emergency broadcast, he told us that a window in the cockpit had shattered, and that was the exact terminology that he used,” passenger Heather Ramsey told FOX 11 in Los Angeles.
Rumors then began to swirl that the aircraft may have been struck by some sort of space debris. However, the aircraft may have hit a weather balloon.
“And then the pilot came over the intercom and said, ‘Unfortunately, we have some bad news. The aircraft has collided with an object,’” Ramsey continued. “He didn’t specify what the object was. But then he informed us that we would have to make an emergency landing in Salt Lake City.”
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Windborne Systems, a California-based company that designs and builds smart weather balloons, now says one of its balloons may have been responsible for the damage.
“On Thursday, 16 October, Foreign Object Debris (FOD) struck the windshield of UA1093, a 737 MAX aircraft, at approximately 36,000 feet,” the company said in a statement. “WindBorne began investigating this incident on Sunday, 19 October, and we believe that the FOD was likely a Windborne balloon.”
Company officials said they sent their preliminary investigation to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) early Monday morning and were working with both organizations to continue the investigation.
“We are grateful that to our knowledge there were no serious injuries and no loss of pressurization,” the company said.
WindBorne officials said they have conducted thousands of balloon launches and have coordinated with the FAA “for the entire history of the company.”
They say their systems are designed to be safe in the event of a midair collision.
“We are working closely with the FAA on this matter,” the company said. “We immediately rolled out changes to minimize time spent between 30,000 and 40,000 feet. These changes are already live with immediate effect. Additionally, we are further accelerating our plans to use live flight data to autonomously avoid planes, even if the planes are at a non-standard altitude. We are also actively working on new hardware designs to further reduce impact force magnitude and concentration.”
The incident remains under investigation.
