The Captain of a Flair Airlines flight from Toronto to Winnipeg was injured in a bloody accident after the Boeing 737MAX jet suffered a serious bird strike as it departed from Toronto Pearson Airport, smashing the cockpit windscreen on the Captain’s side.
The accident occurred on October 24 but has now only come to light after photos of the damage to the cockpit of the five-year-old aircraft emerged on social media.
Flair flight F8-641 took off from Toronto at around 1:45 pm on October 1 and was still climbing out over the city when it flew through a flock of geese that impacted with the cockpit windscreen.
One of the geese ‘penetrated’ the cockpit windscreen, causing minor injuries to the Captain as glass flew into the flight deck.
The pilots were able to stop the climb at just 5,000 feet before making an emergency diversion straight back to Pearson Airport, where the plane landed just 30 minutes after departure.
The cockpit windscreen of a Boeing 737MAX is made of three separate layers for maximum durability. There is an outer and inner glass layer, and then a vinyl interlayer, which is meant to hold the glass together should either of the other two layers shatter.
Most cockpit windscreen damage is the result of bird strikes, although there have been some high-profile incidents in which the windscreen of commercial jets have shattered without warning.
In 2018, the windscreen on the First Officer’s side of a Sichuan Airlines-operated Airbus A319 burst at a high altitude, injuring the First Officer. Thankfully, the aircraft landed without further incident, and an investigation by China’s civil aviation authority laid the blame on a faulty seal.
Famously, in 1990, a British Airways Captain was partially sucked out of the cockpit when an improperly installed windscreen panel separated from the aircraft. The First Officer and flight attendants had to hold onto Captain Timothy Lancaster’s belt and ankles to stop him from being completely dragged outside the aircraft.
According to some reports, the crew feared Lancaster was dead but continued to hold onto him because they feared he would be sucked into the engine and endanger the aircraft even further.
Miraculously, Lancaster survived and suffered several fractures, including to his right arm, as well as frostbite.
