Southwest Airlines flight makes emergency landing for cracked passenger window

A Southwest Airlines flight en route to New Jersey was diverted to Cleveland after the discovery of a cracked window, according to the New York Post.

The plane had been in the air for two hours when it made an unexpected landing at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport “for maintenance review of one of the multiple layers of a window pane.”

What happened?

Flight No. 957 took off from Chicago Midway Airport around 9 a.m., bound for Newark. Seventy-six people were on board the flight.

One of the passenger windows had a crack on the outside, so the plane was diverted to Cleveland and the passengers were immediately put on another flight to complete their trip.

According to Flight Aware, the Boeing 737-700 was traveling 514 miles per hour at 26,000 feet when the crack was discovered.

The window has multiple layers, and since the crack was in the outer layer only, the passengers were not in any immediate danger, according to reports.

“The flight landed uneventfully in Cleveland. The aircraft has been taken out of service for maintenance review, and our local Cleveland Employees are working diligently to accommodate the 76 customers on a new aircraft  to Newark,” a Southwest spokesperson said.

Southwest said the incident was just a maintenance issue, and the FAA released the following statement: “Southwest Airlines Flight 957, a Boeing 737 flying from Chicago Midway Airport to Newark Airport, requested to divert to Cleveland Hopkins Airport due to a broken passenger window. The aircraft landed without incident at Cleveland.”

More issues for Southwest

Southwest Airlines is still reeling from the tragedy that occurred when a woman was killed when an engine exploded, sending shrapnel through a passenger window and nearly causing her to be sucked out of the plane.

The airline has since ordered inspections of the engine model that failed on that flight, but a passenger has sued the airline, alleging post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression.