Suspected windshield crack grounds Air India’s B787

Air India’s woes with the Boeing 787 aircraft in its fleet continued on Thursday with the Delhi-Kolkata flight returning to the capital after a suspected windshield crack.

The aircraft was over Lucknow when the captain suspected that the windshield had cracked and decided to turn back. Kolkata-bound passengers were transferred to another Air India aircraft and sent on their way a short while after they returned to Delhi.

This is not the first time that the airline has reported a windshield crack in the Boeing 787. There have been previous such incidents with AI’s Boeing 787 aircraft when they were on flights to the UK and Australia.

Meanwhile, a General Electric engineer is expected to reach Seoul on Friday to inspect both the engines on AI’s Boeing 787 aircraft which is stranded in the South Korean capital. The airline was forced to ground the flight in Seoul after the US aviation watchdog, the Federal Aviation Administration, asked all airlines to ground aircraft which are mounted with a particular series of a GE engine. The aircraft that AI was using to operate the Seoul flight had engines which were from the particular series which FAA wanted to check.

Airline sources said that the passengers who were to travel from Seoul to India had already been transferred to other airlines. The stranded aircraft will do a ferry flight, that is, return empty from South Korea except for the airline crew.

It is not unusual for a new aircraft, like the B 787 which entered commercial service for the first time in 2011, to face problems. The world’s largest commercial jet, the Airbus A-380, which has been produced by Boeing’s European competitor Airbus, also faced problems after it entered service in 2007.

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Airplane diverts after windshield cracks

A cracked windshield was not part of traveler Jennifer Squires' flight plan when she boarded a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles on Saturday, May 3. The aircraft was flying at 38,000 feet when the pilot told passengers over the intercom that they would be making an emergency landing in Albuquerque, wrote Squires, via e-mail.

"I immediately thought someone was ill," she wrote. "A few minutes later he (the pilot) told us that because of pressure, the windshield in the cockpit arched, bubbled, and then shattered."

Not the entire windshield, clarified a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. "Our initial information was that the outside part of the windshield shattered but the interior part remained intact," wrote FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford, via email.

"All windows and windshields are at least double paned," said Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant said via e-mail. "This is a rare occurrence but the established procedure is to divert."

There was no loss of cabin pressure, and the airplane landed in about 15 minutes, Squires said. The aircraft had taken off at 8:58 a.m. Eastern Time and landed in Albuquerque at 9:49 a.m. local time (11: 49 a.m. Eastern Time), according to FlightAware.com.

"As I exited the plane, I asked if I could see the damage," wrote Squires, who took her picture at that time. "The pilot and co-pilot were in the cockpit, and I thanked them for getting us down safely."

Squires, who shared the story with CNN iReport, credited the crew's skill and demeanor. "They were very calm. The whole crew was in fact very professional and quite calm. I really didn't fear for my life, and I don't think anyone else was overly reactive or worried."

The airline told passengers it was flying another aircraft from Los Angeles and also offered to re-book passengers on other flights to Los Angeles, Squires said.

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