Officials identify 2.4-pound object that cracked plane’s windshield, forced emergency landing

Officials have determined what they believed caused a United Airlines plane’s windshield to crack at 36,000 feet.

According to CEO John Dean, California-based company called Windborne Systems began looking into the incident following a report from the National Transportation Safety Board and determined that the Boeing 737 Max very likely ran into one of its weather balloons.

The incident, which occurred above Moab, Utah during a flight from Denver to Los Angeles on Oct. 16, occurred despite the company’s best efforts to prevent such collisions.

Layers of the windshield cracked midair and was forced an emergency landing in Salt Lake City with 134 passengers and six crew members were aboard. A pilot suffered minor injuries.

Dean said on X he was surprised at the extent of the damage to the plane’s windshield because Windborne’s balloons weigh only 2.4 pounds at takeoff with a simple bag of sand serving as ballast.

The company said it follows all Federal Aviation Administration rules for the size and design of its balloons, which are used to gather data to help improve weather forecasts.

“I find this extremely concerning, and unacceptable in the case of a collision, regardless of what the official regulations are, It resulted in injury to a pilot, which I’m simply not okay with whatsoever,” Dean said in a post on X.

“We haven’t yet received any operational guidance. Regardless, we just deployed a software change to minimize time at active flight levels and are manually checking it across the full constellation. Additionally, we are actively working on new hardware designs to reduce impact force magnitude and concentration.”

Windborne has launched more than 4,000 balloons and coordinates with the FAA each time, according to the Associated Press.