San Francisco-bound Virgin Atlantic flight rerouted after Boeing 787-9’s windscreen cracks at 40,000 feet

A Virgin Atlantic flight which was headed for San Francisco, United States from London, United Kingdom was forced to turn around after the windscreen of a Boeing 787-9 cracked midair, reportedly leaving the cockpit crew baffled. 

The cockpit crew of the packed commercial flight from London’s Heathrow Airport was forced to turn around after the Boeing jet suffered “damage to the outer layer of the cockpit windscreen,” said a spokesperson from Virgin Atlantic. 

The Virgin Atlantic flight was said to be at an altitude of 40,000 feet when the crack penetrated Flight VS41’s glass.

The cause of the damage to the flight, on May 27, was not clear, but Virgin Atlantic assured that at “no point was the safety of the aircraft, our customers or our cabin crew compromised.” 

The flight was three hours into its 11-hour journey and was said to be somewhere between Greenland and Iceland cruising at an altitude of 40,000 feet when the incident took place. 

The British airline issued an apology to the passengers affected by the delay and provided overnight accommodation for them before they were placed on alternative flights the following day.

“At no point was the safety of the aircraft, our customers or our cabin crew compromised and the Captain made the decision to return to Heathrow, where we had the replacement parts and tooling in place to fix the issue and avoid further impact to our customers and our schedules,” said a Virgin Atlantic spokesperson, as quoted by the Evening Standard. 

“We always work well above industry safety standards and the aircraft was back in service within 24 hours of the event. We’d like to apologise to the customers involved, for the delay to their journeys.”

The airline offered no explanation about what could have led to the crack in the cockpit windscreen which it said is made of multiple layers.

The incident in May was just among many involving the the US planemaker, which has come under scrutiny in recent months.

Notably, it was also not the first time that a Boeing plane had witnessed cracked windscreens. 

Last year, a Tokyo-bound Air New Zealand flight had to return to Auckland because the aircraft’s windscreen was damaged.

Flight ANZ99 was forced to make a U-turn three and a half hours into an 11-hour journey after it had crossed Port Vila in Vanuatu. 

(With inputs from agencies)