Virgin Flight VS41 was en route to San Francisco on May 23 when the central windscreen on the Boeing Dreamliner 787-9 suddenly smashed. The plane, which had lifted off from Heathrow just three hours earlier, was cruising at an altitude of 40,000 feet, leaving cabin staff horrified. Pilots were forced to turn back to the UK, where airport investigators were puzzled to discover what looked like dents on the four-layer-thick glass. The incident is not the first time Boeing planes have reported cracked windscreens, with another flight forced to turn back to its destination in 2023. An Air New Zealand flight to Tokyo was forced to turn back to Auckland in June after sustaining damage to its windscreen mid-flight.

Source: Stuff June 22, 2024 12:15 UTC