Did Space Debris Hit A United Flight Over The Rockies Thursday?

Summary

Did Space Debris Hit A United Flight Over The Rockies Thursday? Here’s What We Know So Far by Gary Leff on October 17, 2025 A United flight from Denver to Los Angeles diverted to Salt Lake City on Thursday. The airline reported that flight 1093 made the decision to address a crack in one layer of its windshield. But was the plane actually hit by space debris? That’s one leading theory based on a photo shared by aviation watchdog JonNYC of the cockpit of the United Boeing 737 MAX 8 (registration N17327). Photo NOT confirmed Hearing there were scorch-marks, so space-debris or meteorite. pic.twitter.com/ird6QKEZv8 — JonNYC (@xJonNYC) October 17, 2025 The aircraft was carrying 140 passengers and cruising at 36,000 feet. A replacement aircraft took customers to LA, arriving six hours later than planned. #AirportAlert United Airlines Flight UA1093, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 (N17327), took off from Denver (DEN) headed to LAX just 1hr ago—but now it’s diverting to SLC after a cracked window in the cockpit. Fire Dept is standing by waiting their arrival. #Aviation Follow Here:… pic.twitter.com/oWtXlPyLKv — SLCScanner (@SLCScanner) October 16, 2025 As of this writing, the aircraft that diverted remains on the ground in Salt Lake City more than a day later. On modern airliners the forward windshields are laminated, multi‑ply, electrically heated structures designed to survive a single‑ply failure without loss of pressurization or bird penetration. A crack in one layer is consistent with: Windshield heat/connector fault leading to localized overheating, thermal stress, and cracking of a ply. This an leave heat discoloration or “scorchy” marks. Benign thermal/structural crack of a ply due to temperature gradients and residual stresses. This is a routine, known in‑service failure. The laminated construction is fail‑safe to continue flight, but procedure would typically involve crew descending to reduce pressure differentials, manage heat, and land at a suitable airport. That descent fro...