A KLM flight to Brazil from the Netherlands faced big scare mid-air on its journey when the windshield cracked and forced the plane to return to its departure point. It took four hours and 40 minutes for the plane to reach back to its source.
The KL705 flight that took off on the day after Christmas (December 26) departed from Amsterdam Schiphol at 10:41 am (local time) for Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and landed back at its source at 6:20 pm (local time). While the plane was flying over the Atlantic Ocean, the windshield's outer pane cracked with a loud sound. The sound was loud enough to be audible in the passenger cabin, The Aviation Herald reported.
It was a major relief for the passengers as the damage was limited to the outer pane of the windshield and the pilots were able to fly it back to the point of take-off. It took almost nine hours for the pilots to fly back to the source station.
The aircraft landed safely in the Netherlands. Passengers of the plane were then shifted to another aircraft, which eventually reached Rio de Janeiro.
Mid-air chaos
According to a report by The Independent, there are three layers on a cockpit windshield and it consists of "a glass outer pane, a plastic middle pane, and a glass inner pane."
"Any of the layers can withstand full pressure in the case of a sudden pane crack," it quoted retired Captain John Cox as saying. It entirely depends on the pilots to determine the degree of damage and land the aircraft accordingly.
