United Airlines passenger describes panic on flight after mystery object smashes windshield, injures pilot

A passenger aboard a United Airlines flight that struck a mystery object at 36,000 feet, forcing it to make an emergency landing last week described the terrifying moment travelers learned of the collision.

United Flight 1093 from Denver to Los Angeles made an emergency landing in Salt Lake City on Thursday after something smashed into the windshield with such force that it shattered a layer of glass and injured one of the pilots.

Heather Ramsey, one of the 134 passengers on the flight, told Fox 11 she was coincidentally recording the sunrise out her window when the six flight attendants leapt into action.

“One flight attendant raised her voice and told the other, ‘Get back. Get to the back of the aircraft, stop service,’” Ramsey said.

She added that, mere seconds later, the crew announced over the intercom that “we have some bad news. The aircraft has collided with an object.”

The plane made a rapid 10,000-foot descent all while Ramsey said she could only think about how they “could go down at any time.”

“We were all holding our breath until the very end. You could definitely feel the tension on the entire aircraft,” she told the outlet.

Officials have not yet figured out what the mystery object was — but it was large enough to do some damage. The impact shattered the windshield and rained down glass shards on the pilot, which sliced his arms.

Ramsey said she’s trying to rationalize what could’ve struck the plane at 36,000 feet — or over 6 miles — high.

“That seems a little high for a bird. People are saying scrap metal, it could be space debris, drones?” Ramsey suggested.

The Federal Aviation Administration noted that no commercial airliner has ever been struck by space debris — and if that were to happen, the odds are still less than one in a trillion.

NASA previously highlighted that the amount of space debris circling the Earth is ever-growing and that the agency is tracking more than 25,000 pieces larger than 4 inches. However, the majority is in orbit more than 1,000 miles above where the collision occured.

Either way, Ramsey lauded their pilot with praise for “keeping [his] composure” even while he was injured.

All of the passengers on the ill-fated flight were safely deplaned and taken to their final destination on a different aircraft, the airline added.

The plane itself is still in maintenance as crews work “to address damage to its multilayered windshield,” United Airlines said in a statement.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the bizarre collision, including analysis of the busted layer of windscreen at its laboratories, according to a statement.