Southwest flight forced to land after another window breaks

NEW YORK, NY - September 7, 2016: A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 passenger jet taxis on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport in the New York City borough of Queens on September 7, 2016. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images)
By Alexandra Coulton


A Southwest Airlines flight was forced to make an unscheduled stop when the outer pane of a window cracked.

The incident echoed a tragic accident that occurred just weeks before on another Southwest Flight when an engine blew-up, smashing a window and killing one passenger who was partially sucked out of the plane. 

The flight, originally scheduled to travel from Chicago to New Jersey landed safety after making an abrupt turn around to land in Cleaveland, according to The ABC.

Passengers reportedly heard a loud pop and scurried away from the window.

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“It made you nervous because something like this just happened,” said one passenger, Paul Upshaw, according to the ABC. 

“We didn’t know if it was going to crack open.”

Passengers said the crew handled the situation smoothly, quickly attending to the problem and checked the window, which was near the emergency exit.

“We didn’t panic,” Upshaw said.

A spokeswoman from Southwest, Brandy King, said there were no other mechanical problems with the Boeing 737.

“The aircraft has been taken out of service for maintenance review, and our local Cleveland Employees are working diligently to accommodate the 76 customers on a new aircraft to Newark,” she said, according to the New York Times.

An airline consultant said windows are periodically polished to tiny cracks that form on the windows due to exposure to chemicals and the sun’s rays, reported the ABC, but he couldn’t recall a similar incident caused by these minor cracks.

He said the pilots were right to make a quick landing.

In another statement, the airline said the cabin maintained pressure due to plane windows having three layers and there was technically no emergency landing.

Last week, the airline admitted it had seen ticket sales slow since the fatal accident that occurred two weeks ago.

According to the ABC, the airline estimates the drop in sales will cost it between $50 million and $100 million.

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