The National Transportation Safety Board announced on Sunday that it is looking into an incident involving an airliner that was hit by an object in its windscreen while airborne over Utah.
“NTSB collecting radar, weather, flight data,” the federal agency posted on the social media platform X. “Windscreen is being sent to NTSB labs for analysis.”
The incident took place on Thursday during a United Airlines flight from Denver to Los Angeles. Photos circulated on social media displayed one of the two sizable windows at the front of a 737 MAX airplane as having a major crack. Additional images also depict a pilot’s arm that endured several cuts from what seem to be small glass fragments.
Source of the object remains unverified
The flight captain allegedly referred to the object that hit the aircraft as “space debris.” This has yet to be verified, however.
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) October 18, 2025
Following the collision, the plane successfully landed at Salt Lake City International Airport after being rerouted.
Photographs of the incident indicated that an object struck forcefully near the upper right section of the window, causing damage to the metal frame. As aircraft windows are made up of multiple layers, with laminated material in between, the window pane did not completely shatter. The aircraft was traveling at over 30,000 feet—most likely around 36,000 feet—and the cockpit seemingly preserved its cabin pressure.
