United B38M near Salt Lake City on Oct 16th 2025, cracked windshield, collision with weather balloon
Last Update: November 20, 2025 / 20:18:20 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Oct 16, 2025
Classification
Accident
Airline
United
Flight number
UA-1093
Departure
Denver, United States
Destination
Los Angeles, United States
Aircraft Registration
N17327
Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-800MAX
ICAO Type Designator
B38M
The airline reported the aircraft diverted to address a crack in one layer of the multilayer windshield.
A replacement Boeing 737-9 MAX reached Los Angeles with a delay of about 6 hours.
The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Salt Lake City about 26 hours after landing.
On Oct 20th 2025 the NTSB stated: "The NTSB is investigating a cracked windscreen on a Boeing 737-8 during cruise flight near Moab, Utah, Thursday. Operating as United flight 1093 from DEN to LAX, airplane diverted safely to SLC. NTSB gathering radar, weather, flight recorder data. Windscreen being sent to NTSB laboratories for examination."
On Oct 21st 2025 weather ballon provider Windbornesystems released a statement saying:
On Thursday, 16 October, Foreign Object Debris (FOD) struck the windshield of UA1093, a 737 MAX aircraft, at approximately 36,000 ft. WindBorne began investigating this incident on Sunday, 19 October, and we believe that the FOD was likely a WindBorne balloon.
At 6am PT Monday morning, we sent our preliminary investigation to both the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and are working with both organizations to further investigate this incident. We are grateful that to our knowledge there were no serious injuries and no loss of pressurization. The flight, which was en route from Denver to Los Angeles, diverted to Salt Lake City. The plane itself later flew to Chicago.
WindBorne has conducted more than 4,000 launches. We have been coordinating with the FAA for the entire history of the company and file NOTAMs (aviation alerts) for every balloon we launch.
The system is designed to be safe in the event of a midair collision. This is the purpose of the FAA Part 101 and ICAO weight limits. Our balloon is 2.4 pounds at launch and gets lighter throughout flight.
We are working closely with the FAA on this matter. We immediately rolled out changes to minimize time spent between 30,000 and 40,000 feet. These changes are already live with immediate effect. Additionally, we are further accelerating our plans to use live flight data to autonomously avoid planes, even if the planes are at a non-standard altitude. We are also actively working on new hardware designs to further reduce impact force magnitude and concentration.
On Nov 20th 2025 the NTSB released their preliminary report stating, that the captain received minor injuries as result of the occurrence. The NTSB summarized:
According to the captain, while established in cruise flight at flight level 360 (36,000 ft pressure altitude), he noticed an object distant on the horizon. Before he could mention the object to the first officer (FO), there was a significant impact to the FO’s forward windshield along with a loud bang. The impact resulted in both pilots being showered with pieces of glass. The captain sustained multiple superficial lacerations to his right arm; the FO was uninjured.
Following the event, the flight crew coordinated with air traffic control and initiated a descent.
The cabin pressurization remained stable, with no fluctuations throughout the flight. The captain transferred control of the airplane to the FO while he conducted associated checklists and communicated with dispatch and the flight attendants (FAs). During this time, the FO’s window overheat light illuminated and the crew addressed it per the applicable checklist.
After coordination with dispatch, the crew selected SLC as the most suitable diversion airport.
The captain notified the passengers of the diversion and FAs were briefed to prepare the cabin for landing. The captain then initiated self-care to clean, sterilize, and bandage his wounds on his arm.
The captain subsequently resumed pilot flying duties for descent and landing. The flight was vectored for an ILS approach to runway 16L at SLC. The approach and landing were uneventful. The aircraft taxied to the gate under its own power, escorted by airport rescue and firefighting vehicles. Upon arrival at the gate, emergency medical personnel provided the captain with first aid. There were no other reported injuries.
After the event was reported, data was requested for the position of weather balloons, any other aircraft, and for any known reentry objects that were large enough to have signification portions survive that might have been in the area of the collision.
WindBorne Systems Inc. reported that they lost contact with one of their global sounding balloons (GSBs) that was in the vicinity of the airplane at the time of the accident. The GSB was launched from Spokane, Washington at 1129 MDT on October 15, 2025. The balloon traveled south from Washington, down through Oregon and Nevada before turning northeast, and was crossing though Utah at the time of the accident.
There was a Notice to Airman, GEG 10/068, issued at 816 MDT for the balloon launch operations at Spokane that expired at 1700 MDT the same day, October 15, 2025. The GSB stopped communicating with the ground on October 16, 2025, between 0636:16 and 0643:36 MDT. The last communication from the GSB reported that the pressure altitude was 35,936 ft (which had been oscillating between 35,800 and 36,200 ft over the preceding hour). The GSB self-reported location was latitude 38.53142N and longitude 109.41600W and the wind was 73 knots from the southwest.
According to WindBorne, the GSB is a lightweight, long duration high-altitude weather balloon platform operated under the provisions of Title 14 CFR Part 101.1. It is an unmanned free balloon.
Aircraft Registration Data
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Oct 16, 2025
Classification
Accident
Airline
United
Flight number
UA-1093
Departure
Denver, United States
Destination
Los Angeles, United States
Aircraft Registration
N17327
Aircraft Type
Boeing 737-800MAX
ICAO Type Designator
B38M
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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