Southwest jet forced to land when window cracks

CLEVELAND — Passengers on a Southwest Airlines plane first heard a loud pop and then scurried away when they saw a jagged crack in a window that forced the jet to land in Cleveland on Wednesday.

Some on board immediately thought back to just two weeks ago when a jet engine blew apart and broke a window in a deadly accident aboard another Southwest flight.

“It made you nervous because something like this just happened,” said passenger Paul Upshaw of Chicago, who was about two seats from the window. “We didn’t know if it was going to crack open.”

No one was reported injured after Flight 957 landed safely Wednesday. The Boeing 737 heading from Chicago to New Jersey made an abrupt turn toward Cleveland while over Lake Erie, according to tracking data from FlightAware.com.

Some of the plane’s 76 passengers told The Associated Press that the crew quickly checked the window near an emergency exit and handled the situation smoothly.

“People just started scattering,” said Upshaw, who added that no one was yelling or screaming. “We didn’t panic.”

Dallas-based Southwest said that the plane was diverted to examine damage to one of the three layers in the window, but the airline didn’t immediately release details on how the window was broken. Photos taken by passengers and posted on social media showed one window with a large, jagged crack.

Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Brandy King said that the plane never lost cabin pressure — which would have triggered oxygen masks to drop down for passengers — and that the pilots did not declare an emergency before landing.

Robert Mann, an airline consultant and former American Airlines executive, said windows are periodically polished to remove crazing, the formation of tiny cracks from exposure to chemicals and the sun’s rays. He said that he couldn’t recall a similar incident caused by crazing and that the pilots were right to make a quick landing.