Photos shared online show cracks across the cockpit glass and small fragments scattered inside the flight deck. Aviation social media account JonNYC was the first to report the pilot's theory that orbital debris was responsible.
"It Looked Like Space Debris," Says Captain
The captain reportedly told ground crews that the impact appeared to be caused by space debris, which is defunct objects orbiting Earth, such as old satellites or rocket fragments. "It looked like space debris," he said after the flight landed.
Comment: That's an assumption. The plane could also have been sprayed with micrometeorites following a meteor airburst.
These objects can travel at tens of thousands of kilometres per hour and are known to threaten spacecraft and satellites. Experts often liken them to "pebbles hitting a car windshield" except at extreme speed and altitude.
Rare And Puzzling Possibility
While the photos clearly show physical damage, aviation analysts are treating the space debris explanation with caution. The Federal Aviation Administration has previously described the likelihood of human injury from falling space debris as less than one in a trillion.
Comment: Yeah well, they don't know about Flight 447 because its crash into the South Atlantic was covered up:
What are they hiding? Flight 447 and Tunguska Type Events
Aviation commentator Gary Leff noted that the captain's claim to have seen the object approach raises further doubts. At 36,000 feet, debris from orbit would appear as a dark, fast-moving blur, visible for only a split second before impact. "By the time it's close enough to see, it would already hit," Leff explained.
Investigation Underway As Passengers Reach Destination
The Boeing 737's crew made a controlled descent and landed safely in Salt Lake City. Passengers were later flown to Los Angeles on a replacement aircraft.
Although no passengers were injured, investigators are examining what could have caused the sudden strike. Whether it truly was a piece of orbital debris or another type of airborne object remains uncertain.
For now, the incident stands as one of the strangest and rarest mid-air events in commercial aviation; a possible brush with the growing problem of junk in Earth's orbit.
Reader Comments
That stuff circles around up there with speeds of serveral thousands of meters per second. If it wasn't for the atmosphere and windshield, it would look as if his arm was lasered off.
Although at some point, oxygen content might get too low to sustain engine combustion.
The oligarchs need all those satellites for surveillance. "One in a trillion" chance, my arse. Gosh, do you think we can assume that Orbital Today is an industry rag?