A flight from Denver to Los Angeles was diverted to Salt Lake City last week due to a cracked windshield, setting social media abuzz with speculation that the plane had collided with “space debris.”
United Airlines flight 1093 took off from Denver shortly before 6 a.m. on Thursday, according to FlightAware, an aircraft-tracking service. The windshield of the Boeing 737 MAX was cracked while flying over Moab, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, and the aircraft landed in Salt Lake City at about 7:37 a.m.
The NTSB is investigating the windshield damage and is “gathering radar, weather, flight recorder data,” from the aircraft, the agency said in a statement. The windscreen was sent to NTSB laboratories for examination, the agency said.
While social media users speculated on the cause, neither the airline nor NTSB has said “space debris” was the culprit.
The flight included 134 passengers and six crew members, according to United, and another aircraft flew those passengers to Los Angeles. Flight records show the aircraft flew from Salt Lake City to Rockford, Illinois, on Sunday night.
The airline has a maintenance contract with aerospace company AAR in Rockford, according to a news release. Maintenance crews are still working to return the aircraft to service, the airline said in a statement.