JetBlue Pilot Windshield Cracks In Mid-Air, Forcing Emergency Landing
Another week, another commercial flight making an emergency landing due to a potentially dangerous malfunction.
A JetBlue flight going from Puerto Rico to Florida had to make a pit stop after the pilot’s windshield cracked in mid-air, according to Tampa Bay ABC affiliate WFTS.
The flight had left San Juan on Sunday morning and made its emergency landing around 1 p.m. in Fort Lauderdale, per the Tampa Bay Times. Nobody was hurt and every passenger was transferred to another flight to get where they were originally going.
WFTS reporter Michael Paluska was on JetBlue flight 1052 and tweeted photos of the aircraft from the outside, showing the cracks in the windshield. The cracks were reportedly just on the exterior part of the window.
JetBlue released a statement after the incident emphasizing that the emergency landing was just an exercise of caution and everything was fine, according to WFTS.
"On May 6, JetBlue flight 1052 from San Juan to Tampa diverted to Fort Lauderdale in an abundance of caution following a report of damage to one of the outer layers of the cockpit windscreen. The flight landed safely at approximately 1:00 p.m. local time. Customers were accommodated on another aircraft."
As CNN pointed out, this is the third commercial airline incident involving a damaged window in as many weeks. The prior two incidents were on Southwest Airlines, with the first being the widely covered engine explosion that shattered a window and killed a passenger in April. The passenger was partially sucked out of the window and died from injuries.
On Wednesday, a Southwest flight had to make an unplanned stop in Cleveland on its way to Newark when a passenger window cracked in-flight. Everyone got out safely, but the cabin could have theoretically lost pressure.
Less than a day after the JetBlue windshield shattering, a Southwest plane rammed a pickup truck as it was landing. There were no injuries in the accident.
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