"It Just Exploded": Southwest 737-700 Windshield Shatters Despite No Apparent Impact

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:02]A Southwest Airlines flight from Albuquerque  to Baltimore was forced to make an emergency landing in Tulsa on Monday, May 11th after  the cockpit windshield suddenly shattered while at cruising altitude. The Boeing  737-700 was approximately one hour into the three-hour flight when cracks began  to form in the glass before it fractured.

[00:00:23]Fortunately, the flight crew was not injured  during the incident and promptly declared an emergency before initiating a descent  to Tulsa International Airport (TUL).

[00:00:34]Images of the aircraft after it landed show  that the windshield sustained severe damage, which, according to the pilots,  occurred without any impact.

[00:00:43]The Southwest 737-700 had reached a cruising  altitude of 37,000 feet and was flying over the border of Oklahoma and Kansas when the  incident occurred. Per Flightradar24 data, Southwest flight 2665 departed Albuquerque  at 2:04 PM local time and initiated its diversion approximately 70 minutes into the  flight, which was en route to Baltimore.

[00:01:08]The aircraft's quick descent reached a  rate of more than 2,500 feet per minute, and it landed safely in Tulsa  around 25 minutes later.

[00:01:18]At some point during the emergency, the flight  crew used the PA system to inform passengers that the windshield had "exploded" without any  impact with an object, before declaring that the aircraft was making an emergency landing in Tulsa.  One passenger, George Gonzalez, told KRQE News 13: "They mentioned nothing struck the aircraft,  it was just the windshield started cracking, and then it just exploded, so credit to the pilots  for landing the plane and getting us down safely."

[00:01:46]The aircraft involved in Monday's  incident was a 19-year-old Boeing 737-700 (registered N265WN). It was  delivered to Southwest in February 2007.

[00:01:59]Tracking data shows the plane left Tulsa the  next day, spending more than 24 hours on the ground before departing at 11:28 PM. It was flown  to Chicago Midway, landing there close to 1AM.

[00:02:12]As you can see, replacing a cockpit windshield  can usually be completed with a short turnaround, although this is dependent on the  extent of damage and any potential issues with the surrounding aircraft.  Given the apparent lack of any impact, structural fatigue will be looked at when  determining the cause of Monday's emergency.

[00:02:32]Data from ch-aviation shows that the jet  has accumulated over 60,000 flight hours and 36,000 flight cycles during its time  with Southwest. Both the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration  have confirmed that the incident involved a cracked windshield,  but did not elaborate further.

[00:02:50]With similar incidents in the past, a  short-circuit occurring in the de-icing system of the outer tempered glass  pane has lead to a thermal shock, then causing the near-immediate shattering. This  would be OUR guess as to what had happened and it seems like others commenting on  the story have suggested the same.

[00:03:09]What do you think of this incident?  Let us know by leaving a comment.