"On Oct. 16, United Airlines flight 1093 took off from Denver International Airport at 5:51 a.m. MDT and was headed to Los Angeles, according to FlightAware, but an unidentified object at an unusually high altitude, 36,000 feet, struck the windshield, forcing the flight to divert to Salt Lake City International Airport. "I was just looking out the window thinking, 'We could go down at any time.' It was really scary," passenger Heather Ramsey told LA television news station KTTV-TV."
"Investigators are trying to determine what could have hit the plane so high up in the air. In a statement released on social media, the National Transportation Safety Board said that it is using "radar, weather, flight recorder data" to look into the incident and that the windscreen is being sent to the safety board's lab for testing. "United flight 1093 landed safely in Salt Lake City to address damage to its multilayered windshield," the airline told SFGATE in a statement, referencing how aircraft windscreens have several layers so as not to completely break in flight."
United Airlines Flight 1093 departed Denver International Airport at 5:51 a.m. MDT on Oct. 16 bound for Los Angeles. At about 36,000 feet an unidentified object struck the aircraft windshield, forcing the flight to divert to Salt Lake City International Airport. A passenger described fear and tension aboard the flight. The National Transportation Safety Board is using radar, weather, and flight recorder data to investigate and has sent the windscreen to its lab for testing. United said the flight landed safely to address damage to its multilayered windshield. Bird strikes are common but typically occur below 500 feet; strikes above 20,000 feet are rare, and hail from severe thunderstorms can be extremely hazardous at high altitudes.
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