A cracked windshield forced a Fresno plane landing. It happens more often than you think
The aircraft that was forced to make an emergency landing at Fresno Yosemite International Airport on Monday afternoon experienced a problem that’s not exactly uncommon for jetliners.
American Eagle 3130 was about an hour into its regular daily flight from Phoenix, Arizona to Arcata, on the northern California coast, with almost 60 passengers aboard when the flight crew discovered that a crack in the cockpit windshield as it was flying over Mono Lake on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada range..
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, more than three dozen instances of cracked windshields have been reported by airlines over the past five years. But the FAA also reports that at peak operational times, as many as 5,400 commercial and private aircraft are flying in skies above the U.S.
Aeroweb, an aviation and aerospace consulting company, estimates that there were 238 CRJ-700 regional jets in the U.S. commercial aircraft fleet in 2020 — about 3% of the total of almost 7,700.
Aviation experts say windshields on airliners typically are composed of multiple layers of thick glass and plastic. More than one of the layer would need to be compromised before the potential for decompression of the aircraft at a higher altitude. Descending to a lower altitude and landing at the nearest airport is the standard protocol for such cases.
Utah-based SkyWest Airlines operates the flight under a contract with American Airlines. The SkyWest flight crew took off from Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix just after 2:15 p.m., according to tracking data from FlightAware.com.
Tracking data indicated that at 3:21 p.m., the jet was southeast of Mono Lake, flying northwest at an altitude of 36,000 feet. Within five minutes, the crew had dropped the plane down to an altitude of 20,000 feet, and at 3:30 p.m. had turned the aircraft to the southwest toward Fresno, where SkyWest has a maintenance facility.
The flight landed in Fresno at 3:54 p.m. The passengers were transferred onto another SkyWest CRJ-700 jet, which took off from Fresno at about 5:45 p.m. to continue their trip to California Redwood Coast - Humboldt County Airport. The flight landed at the airport in McKinleyville, near Arcata, at 6:41 p.m., about four hours after the scheduled arrival time.
Ian Gregor, an FAA spokesperson, said airlines are required to file Service Difficulty Reports with the agency “when certain situations occur, including system or component issues that result in emergency actions during flight.”
Through early April, he added, 37 airlines filed Service Difficulty Reports about cracked windshields during the past five years.
Previous emergency incidents
Neither the FAA nor Fresno Yosemite International Airport were able to provide data about how many emergency landings have occurred at the airport in recent years.
In The Fresno Bee archives, past emergency landings reported at Fresno airports include:
- July 18, 2013, when a SkyWest / United Express flight from Los Angeles to Portland, Ore., was diverted to Fresno for an indication of a problem with the air conditioning system.
- Jan. 28, 2013, when a small aircraft with a student pilot and instructor aboard experienced engine problems while making instrument approaches at Chandler Executive Airport in southwest Fresno. The instructor piloted the single-engine plane to a landing in a grassy field near Church and Walnut avenues.
- June 16, 2011, when a SkyWest airliner landed safely at Fresno Yosemite International after experiencing an engine problem. The aircraft was undergoing maintenance at the airport and was flying with a crew of two aboard when the malfunction happened.
- May 6, 2011, when an American Eagle flight from Los Angeles to Reno was diverted to Fresno after pilots noticed an electrical odor. The aircraft landed safely.
- Nov. 22, 2010, when a SkyWest airliner bound from Tuscon, Ariz., to San Francisco had a hydraulic problem and was diverted to Fresno. No injuries were reported.
- Oct. 23, 2010, when the pilot of a small plane with a passenger reported possible electrical problems and landed safely in the morning. On the same day, a Navy F/A-18 Hornet reported electrical problems and was diverted to Lemoore Naval Air Station, where it made a safe emergency landing.
