American Airlines: Flight from New York to Spain forced to divert to Boston due to cracked windshield

An American Airlines flight was forced to divert last night (Wednesday 28 February) due to a cracked windshield, according to police. American Airlines Flight No. 94 took off from JFK Airport in New York and was headed to Madrid, Spain.

However, it was forced to divert and land in Boston, at 10.14pm where it was taken out of service to be inspected by a maintenance team. Massachusetts State Police said the aircraft had to divert due to a cracked windshield. 

American Airlines said in a statement that the plane was diverted "due to a maintenance issue” adding, "we never want to disrupt our customers' travel plans and apologise for the inconvenience this has caused.” No injuries were reported and the airline said all passengers will be placed on a replacement aircraft that will depart for Madrid this morning (Thursday 29 February).

U.S. airline safety has been under renewed scrutiny after the door panel of an Alaska Airlines flight blew out mid-air on 5 January. The incident occurred just minutes after the Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft had taken off from Portland, Oregon.

A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board determined that four bolts which were meant to hold the door plug in place were missing. The Federal Aviation Administration quickly ordered the grounded of this fleet of planes, however they have since come back into service. 

A former quality manager at Boeing has warned that 737 planes are back up in the air too soon. John Barnett, told TMZ Live on Wednesday 31 January) that he is “concerned” about the aircraft being back in service as the door plug blowout incident was due to “jobs not being completed properly”. Mr Barnett told TMZ that “they have done due diligence and inspections to ensure that the door plugs on the 737 are installed properly” but “my concern is what about the rest of the aeroplane?”. He added that he has these concerns because “inspection steps have been removed” and issues are “being ignored”.