A Southwest Airlines flight from Albuquerque to Baltimore was forced to make an emergency landing on Monday afternoon after the cockpit windscreen on the Captain’s side of the flight deck suddenly shattered as the plane cruised at 31,000 feet over Oklahoma.
The incident involved a 19-year-old Boeing 737-7 that was operating as Southwest flight WN-2665, which departed Albuquerque International Sunport at around 10:55 am on May 11.
The plane was scheduled to fly across the mid-west en-route to Baltimore for what should have been a routine three-hour flight, but just over an hour into the flight, as the pilots were flying high above Oklahoma, the cockpit windscreen started to crack.
A cracked windscreen isn’t always an emergency situation, but in this case, the main windscreen on the left-hand side of the plane suddenly shattered, turning the windscreen opaque and damaging its structural integrity.
At this point, the pilots declared an emergency and diverted to Tulsa, where the plane landed without injury. Once safely on the ground, some of the passengers on the plane were able to see firsthand the damage to the window.
One of those passengers, George Gonzales, shared his photo of the damage to the local news station KRQE.
Gonzales told the station: “They mentioned you know nothing struck the aircraft, it was just the windshield started cracking, and then it just exploded, so credit to the pilots for landing the plane and getting us down safely.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Southwest Airlines confirmed the incident, saying: “Southwest Airlines Flight 2665 diverted safely to Tulsa due to a windshield crack. The flight landed uneventfully and Customers were reaccommodated to Baltimore on another aircraft.”
“We appreciate the professionalism of our Flight Crew. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Customers and Employees.”
The cockpit windscreen of a Boeing 737MAX is made of three separate layers for maximum durability. There is an outer and inner glass layer and then a vinyl interlayer, which is meant to hold the glass together should either of the other two layers shatter.
While rare, it’s not unheard of for cockpit windscreens to crack or shatter during a flight, although in most cases, this is as a result of a bird strike or hail at low 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.
