A Southwest Flight Was Diverted Mid-Flight Due to a Broken Window

A Southwest Airlines flight made an emergency landing on Wednesday morning after one of the aircraft's windows broke mid-flight. Southwest Flight 957, which was bound for Newark, New Jersey from Chicago-Midway Airport, reportedly made the unscheduled landing in Cleveland, Ohio around 11am. 

Photos of the window, which were posted online shortly after the plane landed, show fractured glass, but not an entirely shattered window. The Boeing 737-700 aircraft reportedly made the diverted landing two hours after taking off, according to a report by the The New York Post. 

Southwest said the plane landed in Cleveland without incident, writing in a statement:

"The Crew of Southwest Flight 957, with scheduled service from Chicago Midway International Airport to Newark Liberty International Airport, made an unscheduled stop at Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport for maintenance review of a potential crack to the outer pane of a window. There are multiple layers of panes in each aircraft window. No emergency landing was declared. The aircraft maintained pressurization, and the flight landed uneventfully in Cleveland. The aircraft has been taken out of service for maintenance review, and our local Cleveland Employees worked diligently to accommodate the 81 Customers on a new aircraft to Newark. The Safety of our Customers and Employees is our number one focus each and every day."

The scare comes less than a month after a woman was partially sucked out of a window onboard another Southwest flight while the plane cruised at 32,500 feet. The disaster onboard Southwest Flight 1380 was caused by an engine failure that sent shrapnel flying into a window, shattering it on impact.