The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed Sunday that it is investigating an airliner that was struck by an object in its windscreen, mid-flight, over Utah.

“NTSB gathering radar, weather, flight recorder data,” the federal agency said on the social media site X. “Windscreen being sent to NTSB laboratories for examination.”

The strike occurred Thursday, during a United Airlines flight from Denver to Los Angeles. Images shared on social media showed that one of the two large windows at the front of a 737 MAX aircraft was significantly cracked. Related images also reveal a pilot’s arm that has been cut multiple times by what appear to be small shards of glass.

Object’s Origin Not Confirmed

The captain of the flight reportedly described the object that hit the plane as “space debris.” This has not been confirmed, however.

After the impact, the aircraft safely landed at Salt Lake City International Airport after being diverted.

Images of the strike showed that an object made a forceful impact near the upper-right part of the window, showing damage to the metal frame. Because aircraft windows are multiple layers thick, with laminate in between, the window pane did not shatter completely. The aircraft was flying above 30,000 feet—likely around 36,000 feet—and the cockpit apparently maintained its cabin pressure.

So was it space debris? It is impossible to know without more data. A very few species of birds can fly above 30,000 feet. However, the world’s highest flying bird, Rüppell’s vulture, is found mainly in Africa. An unregulated weather balloon is also a possibility, although it’s not clear whether the velocity would have been high enough to cause the kind of damage observed. Hail is also a potential culprit.

Assuming this was not a Shohei Ohtani home run ball, the only other potential cause of the damage is an object from space.

That was the initial conclusion of the pilot, but a meteor is more likely than space debris. Estimates vary, but a recent study in the journal Geology found that about 17,000 meteorites strike Earth in a given year. That is at least an order of magnitude greater than the amount of human-made space debris that survives reentry through Earth’s atmosphere.

A careful analysis of the glass and metal impacted by the object should be able to reveal its origin.

This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.

“These are the types of lawsuits we need more of.”

Delta Air Lines and United Airlines are facing class action lawsuits from more than a million passengers who say they were misled into paying extra for so-called “window seats” that didn’t actually have windows. The suits argue that the airlines knowingly labeled seats next to blank walls as window seats, pocketing millions in fees while customers expected a view.

Featured Video

People have complained about this on social media for years, and the airlines’ inaction could cost them millions.

Windowless window seats

Multiple attorneys representing over a million former passengers filed two class action lawsuits on Tuesday. They accuse Delta and United Airlines of charging more for seats that promised a window without delivering the goods.

While these seats might be furthest from the aisle, some end up next to a blank wall due to window placement or to cover up air conditioning ducts, electrical conduits, and other necessary components. The complaint argues that the airlines should not have labeled these as window seats, and certainly shouldn’t have charged extra.

“Windows can captivate or distract an antsy child,” the suit against Delta reads. “Many people have a fear of flying, or get claustrophobic or motion sick on planes, and windows give them a greater level of comfort in an otherwise stressful environment. Others just want a burst of sunlight to brighten their days.”

“Whatever the motive, had Plaintiff and the class members known they were choosing a windowless seat, they would not have selected it at all, much less paid more money for it.”

Alaska and American Airlines warn customers during the booking process when seats next to the wall don’t have windows. Delta and United don’t, and the lawsuit accuses them of knowingly labeling windowless spots as “window seats” and selling millions of tickets this way.

Class actions take flight

Both filings include screenshots of social media posts from annoyed customers displaying photos of these windowless window seats. A simple search for “window seat no window” on a platform like X brings up many such posts.

On July 2024, @si4rra snapped a photo like this and wrote, “so i paid extra for a window seat….with no window.”

In 2017, @MyFavoriteDJ tweeted a photo of himself sitting at a windowless seat alongside the caption, “Hey @united paid your INSANE $75 charge for a window seat. There’s no window.”

The fact that some of these complaints date back 10 years or more explains why so many users are cheering on these class action lawsuits.

“These are the types of lawsuits we need more of,” wrote @NotZainAgain.

“I would like to join this class action. I have receipts,” @JHartley2 offered.

“Higher prices (and straight up rip-offs), declining quality,” said @ICElationist. “Gotta love it.”

User @katiermckay agreed that “we need more class actions about the quotidian scams that add up to a lifetime of exploitation.”

These lawsuits and reactions may be a sign that customers are at their limit when it comes to added fees and other shenanigans by airlines that keep finding ways to charge folks more for less.

The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s newsletter here.

Don’t look now, but things are starting to get back on track at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR). Construction on the airport’s busiest runway wrapped up earlier this week, 13 days ahead of schedule.

“The airport’s runway construction project is now complete,” said Jon Gooda, United’s vice president of airport operations in a letter to United customers. “That means all runways at Newark are open, and we’re confident that will lead to even better on-time performance for our airline.”

That, combined with a reduced schedule and patches to air traffic control communications, should stem the worst disruptions that plagued travelers last month, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said Monday — speaking alongside Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, which operates a major hub at Newark.

Now, Kirby noted, customers may have incentive to return to the busy airport: “The fares are better than they’re probably ever going to be in the years,” he claimed Monday.

He’s not wrong. Our partners at Points Path found cash prices on some Newark flights down by as much as 12% compared to last summer, setting up a potential decision — would a cheap flight deal be enough to get you back to the airport?

A tumultuous month

Passengers faced thousands of flight cancellations and delays in late April and May, owing to a trio of problems that compounded at EWR: Federal Aviation Administration tech outages, air traffic control staffing shortages, and the ongoing runway rehabilitation project.

The travel woes caused mass headaches for passengers, with hourslong delays common in the terminal, on the taxiways, and in the air, and airlines offered travelers flexibility to change their tickets.

Though United, the U.S. Department of Transportation and experts I spoke with all insisted safety was never at risk, large sums of travelers opted to avoid Newark and fly out of a different airport in the region.

Flight canceled or delayed? Here’s what to do next

Are things getting better at Newark?

It’s far too early to promise a smooth-sailing summer at the New Jersey hub, particularly with the hurdles travelers can face when afternoon thunderstorms pop up. But there are some encouraging signs the worst problems we saw in May could — at least for now — be behind us.

Late last month, the FAA said it would reduce the number of hourly flights allowed at Newark, hoping to bring the takeoff and landing schedules to a more manageable rate. United, by far the airport’s biggest carrier, praised the move.

Then, on Monday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — which governs EWR — marked the end of the runway construction project that had been slated to run through June 15. Meanwhile, the DOT expects patches meant to shore up communications at the Philadelphia FAA facility that runs Newark’s airspace should be online in the coming weeks.

“Everyone who touches the problem is giving their full-hearted effort, they’re leaning into the problem, and helping fix the problem,” Duffy said at a news conference Monday.

Making progress

The numbers are improving. On Sunday, around a fifth of flights inbound to Newark were delayed, according to FlightAware — not insignificant, but far better than the 40-50% of flights that were routinely late getting to the gate in May. Just 18% of flights to Newark were late on Monday — better than several other U.S. airports arrival rates.

Helping matters, Duffy and Kirby argued, are the reduced schedules airlines will operate at EWR through late October. Between June 15 and Oct. 26, the FAA will limit takeoffs and landings to just 68 hourly (34 takeoffs and 34 landings). Historically, the airport has had the capacity for as many as 77 total aircraft movements per hour during peak periods.

United expects to fly around 380 daily departures this summer, the airline said late last month. That’s down about 7% from the 410 it had originally planned. The carrier, Kirby noted Monday, has already removed flights from its summer schedule, so customers shouldn’t see additional cancellations as a result of the reductions.

“If you’re buying a ticket this summer, you can have confidence that that’s the schedule,” Kirby said, while predicting that Newark would be the “most reliable” airport in the New York City area over the coming months.

Cheap flights available?

Kirby also made a not-at-all-subtle overture to woo flyers back to the airport with the possibility of cheap flights, owed to discounting after the carrier got “well behind” on its Newark bookings.

“That means more seats are available,” Kirby said — and if you’re an airline, you’re typically better off selling a seat on the cheap than letting it fly empty. “So now’s the time to book your vacation. If you want to go to Europe, or you want to head across the country, now’s the time.”

The data suggests ‘Newark discounts’ are happening

There’s merits to Kirby’s claims, especially when it comes to one-way bookings out of Newark.

One-way domestic flights on United out of EWR are down 8.6% versus last summer, according to data made available Tuesday through TPG’s collaboration with Points Path, a free web browser extension that shows points and miles award prices in Google Flights along with the cash fares.

One-way international flights on United are down even more sharply, by over 12%.

Here are some of the other trends we’re seeing:

• One-way domestic bookings on other airlines besides United were down 12% versus last summer, and by 10% for international flights. Award rates for both types of bookings were down around 8%.
• Round trips out of Newark on both United and other airlines were cheaper than last summer, but the difference from last year was less pronounced than one-way fares.

Keep in mind, Points Path had already noted fares across the board were down this summer nationwide — though award rates were running far closer to last year.

Should I fly out of Newark?

All things considered, I’d have few qualms about flying out of Newark if a flight or itinerary out of that airport was significantly cheaper or more convenient for me than another airport in the region. In fact, I’m planning to do just that in about 10 days.

If there was one thing I’d remain a little cautious about, at least for the early part of summer, it’d be starting my trip at Newark, then connecting somewhere else. So, if you’re on the fence about flying out of Newark, maybe err on the side of a nonstop flight.

I’d also be sure to book my flight with a card that has travel insurance protections, so that I’d have a chance at reimbursement if I got stranded for any reason; personally, I typically book my flights with The Platinum Card® from American Express.

You can find some of TPG’s favorite cards that carry such protections here.

Long-term hurdles remain

Despite the recent progress in getting Newark flight operations closer to “back on track,” long-term hurdles remain. Six of 22 full-certified air traffic controllers at the FAA’s Philadelphia center — nearly 28% — have been on leave since a particularly stressful tech outage in April.

Fully solving a larger nationwide shortage of controllers is a multi-year process, as I explained in an in-depth story earlier this year.

“You can’t snap your fingers and make it happen really quickly,” Duffy acknowledged this week.

The Trump administration, meanwhile, has proposed billions of dollars in upfront funding to overhaul the nation’s ATC infrastructure, a proposal widely praised by the airline industry.

That money for the FAA is folded into a larger funding bill — which includes a wide range of other Trump administration priorities — that passed the House last month and now sits with the Senate.

Related reading: