A United Airlines flight has faced a mid-air collision with a falling object that is speculated to be a piece of space junk.
While unconfirmed, the incident would be the first time that a piece of debris entering the Earth’s atmosphere from space has hit a plane mid-flight.
No one aboard the 737 Max flight from Denver to Los Angeles faced any major injuries, although it was forced to reroute and landed safely at Salt Lake City International Airport. Unconfirmed pictures on X show a dent in the right front windscreen and some scorch marks on the pilot’s arm.
On X, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it had taken the windscreen for a laboratory analysis and was looking at the radar, weather and flight recorder data.
Photo NOT confirmedHearing there were scorch-marks, so space-debris or meteorite. pic.twitter.com/ird6QKEZv8
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) October 17, 2025
While a better understanding of whether the plane was hit by space junk, a meteorite or something else won’t be available...