We Now Know What Smashed The Cockpit Window Of a United Airlines Boeing 737MAX Leaving Captain Injured And Bloodied
- The mystery behind what smashed the cockpit windscreen of a United Airlines Boeing 737MAX flying at 36,000 feet above Utah last Thursday has been uncovered - An AI weather company's balloon was the most likely culprit, the tech firm's CEO has admitted.
The co-founder of an AI weather forecasting service based in Silicon Valley has admitted that one of his company’s high-altitude weather balloons was most likely behind a terrifying incident aboard a United Airlines Boeing 737MAX last week that shattered a cockpit window and showered the Captain in broken glass, leaving him covered in his own blood.
Late on Monday, John Dean, the co-founder and chief executive of WindBorne Systems, said that he learned that one of the company’s balloons could have been the cause of the high-altitude collision late on Sunday.
Since then, Dean has been working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.
The Terrifying Mid-Air Collision at 36,000 Feet
The incident occurred on October 16 as United Airlines flight UA-1093 from Denver to Los Angeles was flying at around 36,000 feet above the state of Utah. Moments before the collision, the Captain saw something flying towards the cockpit window from above the plane.
The object impacted the top corner of the main windscreen on the First Officer’s side of the cockpit, shattering both the inner and outer panels of the windscreen. Broken glass was sprayed across the cockpit, lacerating the Captain’s arm.
Thankfully, the vinyl interlayer of the windscreen remained intact, and the pilots were able to get the plane down to a safe altitude before making an emergency diversion to Salt Lake City, where the aircraft landed without further incident.
A high-altitude weather balloon was one of the leading theories behind the cause of the accident, although investigators were even looking into the possibility that the plane had been struck by space debris that had reentered the Earth’s atmosphere.
Tech Firm CEO Makes Shocking Admission
“Yes, I think this was a WindBorne balloon,” Dean wrote in a series of posts on X on Monday. “We learned about UA1093 and the potential that it was related to one of our balloons at 11pm PT on Sunday and immediately looked into it.”
Dean explained: “WindBorne operates a constellation of long duration lightweight weather balloons to improve weather forecast, with much of our data going to both US and international governments. We have been coordinating with the FAA for the entire history of the company.”
WindBorne files notices with the FAA to share essential flight information through the official NOTAM system, and Dean stresses that WindBorne complies with FAA regulations covering the deployment of weather balloons, such as strict weight limits, contained within FAA 14 CFR part 101.
Dean added: “The system is designed to not pose a risk to human life in the worst case event of a collision. This is what the FAA 101 and ICAO weight limits are for. And indeed, there were no serious injuries and no depressurization event to my knowledge as a result of the collision.”
WindBorne Now Urgently Working To Improve Design
“However, I’m still surprised to see spallation of the windshield on the inside. I find this extremely concerning and unacceptable in the case of a collision, regardless of what the official regulations are. It resulted in injury to a pilot, which I’m simply not okay with whatsoever.”
WindBorne has already rolled out hardware that is 2x lighter than previous models, but Dean says the company is now “actively” working on a new design that would reduce the force magnitude in the event of another collision.
The company has also pushed a software update that will reduce the time that its balloons are within active flight altitudes.
Matt’s take – Other Times Cockpit Windows Failed
While rare, it’s not unheard of for cockpit windscreens to crack or shatter during a flight. In most cases, this is as a result of a bird strike or hail at low altitude, although the possibility of space debris hitting a commercial plane is certainly a new one.
Thankfully, in this case, the windscreen remained intact, although there have been circumstances in which cockpit windows have completely failed at high altitude.
In 2018, for example, the cockpit windscreen of a Sichuan Airlines Airbus A319 was completely blown out while the plane was flying at a cruising altitude of 31,000 feet.
Miraculously, neither of the pilots was seriously injured, and they were able to quickly get the plane down to 8,000 feet before making an emergency landing in Chengdu, China.
And in 1990, a British Airways Captain was partially sucked out of the cockpit when a windscreen panel separated from the aircraft, leaving a gaping hole. The First Officer and flight attendants desperately held onto the Captain’s belt and ankles to stop him from being completely dragged outside the aircraft.
According to some reports, the crew feared Lancaster was dead but continued to hold onto him because they feared he would be sucked into the engine and endanger the aircraft even further.
Miraculously, Lancaster survived and suffered several fractures, including to his right arm, as well as frostbite.
