United Captain Says His Plane Was Hit By Space Debris At 36,000 Feet — New Photos Show Cockpit Damage

The Captain of the United Airlines Boeing 737 that diverted to Salt Lake City on Thursday says his plane was hit by space debris. JonNYC was first to report this theory, along with photos of damage to the cockpit’s windshield and photos of the captain’s arm that sustained an injury.

I was initially skeptical of space debris as the explanation for damage to Flight 1093 from Denver to Los Angeles with 140 passengers on board only because of how low probability an event that would be. Individual passenger casualty risk from space debris has been deemed less than a trillion‑to‑one event by the FAA. Photos made clear that it was impact of some kind, rather than thermal stress of the windshield.

Here are more photos, showing the full windshield as well as debris in the cockpit:

HOLY CRAP!!! A MAX8 hit a falling object at FL360 yesterday!!! pic.twitter.com/OBx8eUiq4w

— Oeingo Boeing-Go (@oeingoboeing) October 18, 2025

The captain reportedly stated that the impact appeared to be from space debris. Space debris refers to defunct human-made objects in Earth’s orbit—such as inactive satellites, spent rocket stages, and fragments from collisions or explosions—that no longer serve a purpose and may remain in orbit or eventually fall back into Earth’s atmosphere.

These can be like loose pebbles hitting your windshield on the highway, and they pose significant risk to spacecraft and satellites.

It was posted the CA stated he saw it coming at the last moment and that it appeared to him to be “space debris.”

— Oeingo Boeing-Go (@oeingoboeing) October 18, 2025

While damage appears consistent with space debris, perhaps, it still seems so rare (no such incident has ever been recorded) and the report that he ‘saw it coming’ suggests to me that it was something other than space debris.

Space debris would be tiny and dark by the time it reached the plane’s altitude, and wouldn’t reflect much light, likely blending into the sky. It would be moving incredibly fast. By the time it’s close enough to see, it would already hit — we’d be talking a fraction of a second between being visible and impact at most. And cockpit windows only show a small slice of sky. The captain would have to have been staring at exactly the right spot at exactly the right time to see it.

The odds of space debris are low. The odds of seeing the space debris if that’s what it was are low. So while it may have been ‘something like’ space debris, and I am fascinated to continue following this story, I remain skeptical of that particular explanation. Luckily, the plane diverted safely and passengers were ferried on to L.A. on another aircraft.