The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed Sunday that it is investigating a passenger plane that was struck by an object on its windshield mid-flight over Utah.
“The NTSB collects data from radar, weather and flight recorders,” the federal agency said in the social networking site. “The windshield is sent to the NTSB laboratories for examination.”
The strike occurred Thursday during a United Airlines flight from Denver to Los Angeles. Images shared on social networks. showed that one of the two large windows in the front of a 737 MAX aircraft was significantly broken. Related images also reveal a pilot’s arm that has been cut several times by what appear to be small shards of glass.
Unconfirmed object origin
The captain of the flight. reportedly He described the object that hit the plane as “space junk.” However, this has not been confirmed.
-JonNYC (@xJonNYC) October 18, 2025
Following impact, the aircraft landed safely at Salt Lake City International Airport after being diverted.
Images of the crash showed that an object hit hard near the upper right part of the window, showing damage to the metal frame. Because airplane windows are several layers thick, with laminate in between, the window pane did not break completely. The plane was flying above 30,000 feet (probably around 36,000 feet) and the cabin apparently maintained its cabin pressure.
