This is one of the most bizarre diversion incidents that we’ve seen in a long time, and I’m not even sure what to make of it…
While the plane was around 200 miles southeast of Salt Lake City (SLC) at an altitude of 36,000 feet, the pilots made the decision to divert. The reason? There was a crack in the (flight deck) windshield. The pilots initially descended to 26,000 feet, before ultimately diverting to Salt Lake City, where they landed on runway 16L, around 50 minutes after the incident first started.
This shows the pilot’s arm with bruises and blood, and scorch marks on the windshield, suggesting this was either space debris or a meteorite. While JonNYC notes that the photo isn’t confirmed, everything adds up — for example, you can see the course indicator set to 164 degrees, which is also exactly the heading of runway 16L, on which the United flight landed at SLC.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.
