The cracked windshield of a Boeing 737 MAX-8, operating as UA1093, has captured attention across the aviation community. Was space debris to blame?
How’s your day going? Hopefully better than that of the flight crew of last Thursday’s United Airlines flight UA1093. Having departed from Denver (DEN) bound for Los Angeles (LAX), the roughly two year old Boeing 737 MAX 8 was established at a cruising level of 36,000 feet on October 16th, when the flight crew experienced a sudden crack across the cockpit windshield. The crew decided to divert to Salt Lake City (SLC), descended to approximately 26,000 feet, and landed safely short of an hour later.
When speculation takes flight
What makes this incident stand out is that the more speculative corners of the Internet soon were flooded with images of cracked windshields, a pedestal covered in broken glass, and a bloody arm—supposedly belonging to one of the pilots of said flight. Most tickling of all? The theory floated that space debris was the cause of the incident. The NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) has launched an investigation and in due time, we hopefully will receive answers. Until then, let’s sift through some facts that we already know.
Windshield damage per se isn’t unheard of in the aviation industry. Not that this is common fare, but it happens. Flight deck windows are designed using multiple layers, with forward facing sections being heated for even greater resistance to damage. Very rarely will more than one layer crack, leaving literally at least another layer of redundancy.
Most windshield failures occur at lower altitudes due to hail, bird strikes, or temperature stress. With UA1093 having been established at a comfortable 36,000 feet—encountering hail seems unlikely, to say the least. We wouldn’t put any money down for any feathery friends soaring those kinds of altitudes either. But what about space debris?
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) October 18, 2025
Could space debris have hit United Airlines UA1093?
If confirmed, it could represent the first documented instance of such an impact on a commercial passenger aircraft. Chances of this being the case remain slim. In a report to the US Congress in 2021, the FAA (Federal Aviation Authority), stated that there was, on an annual basis, “…conservatively at most, about a 0.1 percent chance that falling space debris would result in a single global injury or death during an aviation activity”.
As comforting as those numbers are to behold, it is at the same time interesting to entertain the notion that the airspace above us (and above any flight path, it should be pointed out) is getting more and more cluttered by junk. For decades, aircraft designers have engineered against turbulence, weather, and mechanical failure, but the growing volume of orbiting debris adds a new dimension to safety considerations. Although the risk remains extraordinarily low—the potential consequences of a high-speed impact at cruise altitude are significant enough to merit further study.
A safe landing and a swift return
For now, we don’t know what (or even if something) hit UA1093. If anything, we can be thankful that the aircraft made its way back down to Earth safely, thanks to sound decisions made by the pilots (the startling effect must have been quite, well, startling). The aircraft itself, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 registered as N17327, remained on the ground in Salt Lake City for three days after the incident. After initial repairs to make the 737 airworthy, it was flown to Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD) for more extensive work before it returns to commercial service.
What are your thoughts on the matter? Make sure to leave a comment in the section below.
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