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Passengers en route to Detroit after taking off from London Heathrow found themselves unexpectedly turning around mid-flight after the pilot discovered the plane’s windscreen was cracked.
Delta Air Lines flight DL17 took off from Heathrow at midday on Saturday for an eight-hour flight to Detroit, Michigan, in the United States.
Instead of crossing the Atlantic, the 188 passengers onboard found themselves back at their departure airport just under an hour later, after the pilot found that the windscreen was cracked.
The Airbus A330 never left the UK, as data from Flightradar shows the plane circling the airspace as far as Nottingham before flying back down south and into Heathrow, landing back at the airport just before 1pm.
The pilot reported the fault shortly after taking off, and followed procedure by returning to the airport.
Delta Air Lines told the BBC that some customers were re-booked onto flights later that day, and those who could not be offered same-day flights were given meals and accommodation.
The plane is being assessed and maintenance is underway to repair the damage, the airline added.
Heathrow Airport added that no other flights were affected by this last-minute diversion.
It is unclear how the windscreen cracked, whether it occurred during the flight or was not noticed until after take-off. Some common causes include extreme changes in temperatures, faults in internal heating systems, and occasionally, bird strikes.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says that cracks can happen across all plane models and generally, when they occur, it is on the glass pane on the outside, which serves as a protective covering for the several layers underneath.
Windshields are around two to three inches thick with several layers. The FAA says cracks occur more often than passengers realise.
Recently, a KLM flight carrying Queen Mathilde of Belgium was forced to make an emergency landing after a crack appeared on the cockpit’s windscreen.
The Queen was on an 11-hour flight from Amsterdam to San Jose in Costa Rica. A Belgian royal commentator who was also on the flight said he and the passengers did not know the windscreen was cracked until they landed.
Other planes have suffered more severe damage, such as one incident in June last year, when an Austrian Airlines plane flew through a hailstorm.
The plane was on its way to Vienna when an unexpected hailstorm led to the destruction of the plane’s nose, windscreen and panelling. The plane managed to land safely despite the damage to the aircraft.
The Independent has contacted Delta Air Lines for further comment.
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English (US) ·