The plane was carrying 166 passengers and seven crew members.
In another flight near-disaster, a United Airlines flight was diverted on Sunday after a cracked windshield was found on the 737-800 Boeing plane, as per the New York Post. United Airlines Flight 1627 was heading from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada, to Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC, when it made a sharp turn for an unexpected stop, as seen on its path tracked by Flight Aware.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane, carrying 166 passengers and seven crew members, completed a safe landing at Denver International Airport and passengers were able to deplane normally. It "landed safely at Denver International Airport in Colorado ... after diverting due to a cracked windshield," the US agency said.
The airline confirmed the same and told the outlet that the diversion took place due to a "maintenance issue." "After safely landing, customers deplaned normally and a plane change occurred. The flight then departed Denver to Dulles," United Airlines said.
As per CBS News, the FAA clarified in a statement that "cracks happen across all aeroplane models" and that they typically occur in the "glass pane on the outside, which serves as a protective covering for the inner structural portion." According to the FAA, windscreen breaking occurs more frequently than most people realise and the glass panes are two to three inches thick with multiple layers.
This incident comes days after a Chicago-bound United Airlines plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Tampa International Airport on January 10 after a door indicator light turned on. According to Flight Aware, United Flight 2434 took off from Sarasota-Bradenton International at 3:42 p.m. and landed at the airport in Tampa at 4:35 p.m. The plane was headed to Chicago when the light started blinking and forced pilots to alert dispatchers, following which the plane was rerouted to Tampa. The plane remained there for a while before taking off for Chicago again.
The aircraft carrying 123 passengers and five crew members made the emergency landing ''as a precaution this afternoon to address a possible mechanical issue,'' a United spokesperson said,
United Airlines is one of the two American companies that operates Boeing 737 Max 9 jetliners, like the one that lost its door plug mid-air. Notably, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 9 MAX faced an emergency on January 6 after one of its doors blew open mid-air.