Delta Makes Emergency Landing Because Of Windshield Cracks
The pilot came on over the public address system and calmly advised his passengers they had to make an emergency landing because the Boeing 737 had a cracked windshield. Delta Flight 1795 was headed for Southern California from Atlanta and diverted to the Dallas-Ft. Worth. The plane landed in Texas without problems and the passengers were put on another plane to continue their flight to John Wayne Airport in Orange County. The FAA is investigating.
This is not the first incident for Delta. In December 2009, Delta flight 0444 left Bogota, Columbia bound for Atlanta and had to turn back when the pilot noticed cracks on the surface of the outer layer of the windshield of the Boeing 757 about 35 minutes into the flight. Following this incident, the FAA was to review the incident to find the cause and to see if the cracks on the Boeing 757 are connected to a string of windshield problems on Boeing 757s.
An FAA spokesman, Kathleen Bergen, pointed out there are several layers of glass in the windshield and this was only one layer, but if there was a trend, “we will look into it.” Delta spokesman, Anthony Black told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this problem was not related because the cracks were on the outside of the windshield, not the interior.
Hopefully, the FAA and Boeing will work together to find the cause of windshield cracks on airliner jets. In my career, I have seen too many tragedies which were the result of known problems which could have been fixed and save lives.
Labels: Boeing, Delta, FAA, NTSB, Windshield CracksPosted by 12:51 pm