A Southwest Airlines flight out of Albuquerque made an emergency landing in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Monday afternoon after a passenger said a window exploded. Pilots told passengers over the intercom that something had happened and that they needed to divert the aircraft, later identified as Flight 2665, to Tulsa.
George Gonzales said he saw the cockpit window shatter and sent a photo of the damage. “They mentioned you know nothing struck the aircraft, it was just the windshield started cracking, and then it just exploded, so credit to the pilots for landing the plane and getting us down safely,” he said.
Southwest later said Flight 2665 diverted safely to Tulsa because of a windshield crack. The airline said the flight landed uneventfully and customers were reaccommodated to Baltimore on another aircraft. It also said it appreciated the professionalism of its flight crew and that nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of its customers and employees.
The flight had been headed to Baltimore when the cockpit windshield problem forced the diversion, a reminder of how quickly a routine trip can change in the air. The airline did not report injuries, and the aircraft came down safely after the crew chose Tulsa for the landing. Similar incidents have left aircraft grounded before, including a separate emergency landing case involving a cracked windshield on a Southwest flight.
For Gonzales and the other passengers, the answer was delivered in real time: the plane landed safely, the crack did not become a worse emergency, and the trip to Baltimore continued on another aircraft. The only thing left unresolved is how the windshield failed so suddenly in the first place.
