Weather balloon likely cause of mid-air collision with United Airlines plane

Weather balloon likely cause of mid-air collision with United plane

A mysterious object that struck a United Airlines flight bound for LAX last week, shattering the cockpit windshield, may have been a weather balloon, according to the CEO of WindBorne Systems.

Speculation has swirled for days about what collided with the aircraft at 36,000 feet. Now, John Dean, co-founder and CEO of WindBorne Systems, says one of his company’s weather balloons may have drifted into the plane’s path.

The incident occurred last Thursday morning on a United Airlines flight from Denver to LAX. The aircraft, cruising nearly seven miles above ground, was struck by an unknown object, forcing it to divert to Salt Lake City. Passenger Heather Ramsey recorded the pilot’s announcement: "Unfortunately, we have some bad news. The aircraft has collided with an object." Photos showed the pilot bloodied and bruised from the impact.

"I was surprised by the level of damage," Dean said. "Our system was designed to be safe in the unlikely event of an impact."

Dean said telemetry data raised concerns that one of WindBorne’s balloons, which weigh between 2 and 3 pounds and can float up to 65,000 feet for two weeks, was involved.

The company often has hundreds of balloons airborne simultaneously. WindBorne is making immediate changes to prevent future incidents. "Over the next month, we’ll roll out updates to track flight paths using ADS-B transponder data from the internet, ensuring balloons move out of the way if they’re in a flight path," Dean said.

Retired Southwest Airlines Capt. Kenneth Wells, who flew for 25 years, called the incident a "freak accident." He noted that pilots have little chance to react to such small objects, especially at night. "If it was daylight, you might see it, but with something that small, you’d only have seconds to respond," Wells said.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the cracked windshield and collecting data.

Meanwhile, WindBorne Systems is working to minimize the already slim chances of collisions, not only from their balloons but also from thousands of others operated by various agencies worldwide.

"No one knows exactly how many operable balloons are in the air globally," Dean said. "If the FAA issues safety requests, we’ll comply immediately."

The NTSB’s final findings could take weeks or months to be released.

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