A Washington-bound flight was forced to divert after the small 76-seat plane experienced an issue with its windscreen.
American Airlines flight AA4435, operated by third-party carrier Republic Airways under the American Eagle subsidiary brand, made an unexpected landing mid-way through the flight.
The Embraer aircraft was already delayed by two hours by the time it left Chicago at 9.30pm on Monday, 10 November, for a flight that usually takes just under an hour and a half.
Halfway through the flight, data from FlightRadar shows the plane flew past Columbus, Ohio, but then proceeded to make a U-turn back to the city.
A spokesperson for American Airlines said that the aircraft “experienced a mechanical issue with the windscreen and diverted to Columbus.”
Instead of landing as intended at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), the flight “landed safely” in Columbus.
“The aircraft was taken out of service to be inspected by our maintenance team,” the spokesperson said. “Customers departed for DCA on a replacement aircraft.”
“Safety is the centre of everything at American. We never want to disrupt our customers’ travel plans and apologise for the inconvenience this has caused,” they added.
Some reports have specified that the windshield cracked mid-air, which caused the unexpected landing, but American Airlines did not confirm this.
The aircraft remained on Columbus’s apron for a day before it took off again for a flight from New York to Charleston, South Carolina.
Aircraft windshields are designed to continue to function safely even if a layer sustains damage.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says that cracks can happen across all plane models and generally, when they occur, it is on the exterior glass pane, which serves as a protective covering for the several layers underneath.
Windshields are around two to three inches thick with several layers. The FAA says cracks occur more often than passengers realise.
The incident comes weeks after a United Airlines flight suffered a cracked windshield mid-flight, causing an unexpected landing in Salt Lake City.
United flight 1039 from Denver to Los Angeles made a diversion on Thursday, 16 October, to address damage to its multilayered windshield.
Read more: United Airlines flight suffers cracked windshield mid-flight
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