A passenger has shared her shock online after it appeared her plane window shattered during a recent flight in the US.
In a viral video shared to TikTok, the traveler Mia can be seen clasping her hand over her mouth, while zooming in on her window, showing it cracked and broken. Watch above.
She doesn’t say anything in the clip, but posts a subsequent video to explain the situation, revealing that in the end it wasn’t as serious as what it appeared.
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Traveling on a Southwest flight from Tucson, Arizona, to Las Vegas, Mia said they had just taken off and flight attendants were taking drink orders when she went to rest her arm on the window sill.
“As soon as my elbow applied any kind of slight pressure, as soon as that happened, the whole window just broke, shattered, the whole thing,” she said in the second video sharing the story.
“So obviously I immediately hit the flight attendant button… she comes over her jaw drops. She’s looking at me, I’m looking at her, she’s looking at the window. She hits a 180 and runs over to the pilots’ cabin and she gets the 4-1-1 from them.”
Mia was then assured there were no issues with cabin pressure and they were safe to complete their flight to Las Vegas, but she was able to change seats.
“Good thing, there are two, three windows. I don’t know how to build plans, but you know, good thing that was there. Everything was fine and we were good for a safe landing in Vegas.
“The plane was originally supposed to continue on to another airport, but obviously the plane needed maintenance after that.”
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Indeed it was only the inside plastic layer of the window that broke, though the footage still went viral being viewed over 12.3 million times.
“I would instantly cry thinking that I was going to get sucked out the window,” one person commented.
“This would cause me to never fly again tbh,” another said.
Though others weren’t concerned, with one pointing out: “Plans have two windows that’s just the tint.”
Joaquim Martins, a professor at the University of Michigan and expert in aircraft design, confirmed as much, telling Insider the cracked plastic didn’t pose any safety threat as its the outside glass window absorbs all the force.
Non-structural items breaking on planes is “perfectly normal”, he said, adding if it had it been the actual glass panel, “stuff would be getting sucked out, and she would have had to put on an oxygen mask.”
The passenger said she received a US$300 flight voucher from Southwest following the incident.
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