A United Airlines pilot was injured and forced to make an emergency landing after a mystery object smashed the windshield of a Boeing 737 at 36,000 feet.
Photos circulating online reportedly show the pilot’s arms bleeding and bruised, with injuries consistent with glass cuts.
Broken glass also coated the dashboard and cockpit. Other photos show what appear to be scorch marks at the point of impact.
United Flight 1093 from Denver to Los Angeles had to make an emergency landing in Salt Lake City on Thursday.
Some online observers suggested that the strike might have been the result of space debris or even a meteor hitting the jet.
The Federal Aviation Administration placed the probability of space debris causing serious injury to a commercial airline passenger at one-trillion-to-one in a 2023 report.
Experts said the windshield crack could be explained by an electrical malfunction, but the scorch marks and the broken glass indicate the plane was likely hit by something.
Birds, hail, and other objects tend to collide with planes at lower altitudes.
What makes this reported incident different is that the Boeing 737 MAX 8 was at cruising altitude — far above those concerns.
“On Thursday, United flight 1093 landed safely in Salt Lake City to address damage to its multilayered windshield. 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,” United said.
The plane remains grounded in Salt Lake City, according to reports.
The amount of space debris circling the Earth continues to grow, with NASA tracking over 25,000 pieces of space debris larger than four inches.
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