California-bound United Airlines flight diverted after midair windshield crack

A United Airlines flight from Denver to Los Angeles was forced to divert to Salt Lake City last week after the aircraft’s window cracked midair, officials said.

Flight 1093, a Boeing 737 Max 8, was about 180 nautical miles southeast of Salt Lake City on Thursday, Oct. 16 when the crew decided to divert due to a crack in one layer of the plane’s multilayer windshield, according to The Aviation Herald, a website that publishes reports about commercial aviation accidents and incidents.

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The aircraft landed safely in Salt Lake City about 50 minutes after departure. There were approximately 134 passengers and six crew members on board.

“On Thursday, United flight 1093 landed safely in Salt Lake City to address damage to its multilayered windshield,” a United Airlines representative said in an email on Sunday. “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 added that aircraft windshields are designed to function safely in case any layer sustains damage.

Images circulating on social media appear to show damage to the aircraft’s windshield, as well as one photo that shows the pilot’s forearm with apparent bruising, but their authenticity has not been independently verified.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday that it has launched an investigation into the incident.

“The NTSB is investigating a cracked windscreen on a Boeing 737-8 during cruise flight near Moab, Utah, Thursday. Operating as United flight 1093 from DEN to LAX, airplane diverted safely to SLC,” the agency wrote in a post on X. “NTSB gathering radar, weather, flight recorder data. Windscreen being sent to NTSB laboratories for examination.”

A replacement aircraft, a Boeing 737 Max 9, later flew the passengers to Los Angeles, arriving about six hours behind schedule. The original jet remained grounded in Salt Lake City for roughly 26 hours after the diversion, according to Aviation Herald.

The incident came just a day after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plane was forced to make an unscheduled landing in the United Kingdom on Oct. 15 because of a cracked windshield, according to the Associated Press.

A Pentagon spokesperson said the landing was carried out “based on standard procedures,” and all aboard were safe. The aircraft, a U.S. Air Force C-32, a modified Boeing 757, had been en route from a NATO meeting in Brussels to the United States when it began broadcasting an emergency signal and descended.

In February, a similar issue occurred aboard another C-32 carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, when that plane returned to Washington about 90 minutes into the flight due to a windshield issue, the AP reported.