United Airlines Flight Makes Emergency Landing After Cockpit Window 'Pops-Open' Mid-Air

A United Airlines flight flying from Connecticut to Washington was forced to change route and make an emergency landing after a cockpit window reportedly opened mid-air. The incident occurred with flight UA-1274 after it took off from Bradley International Airport and was scheduled to land at Washington Dulles Airport. However, changing its course, the plane returned to Bradley Airport because of the incident onboard.

Business Insider quotes a United Airlines representative saying that the plane had to return to Connecticut "address an unlatched cockpit window. The flight landed safely, and we accommodated our customers on another aircraft."

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The flight left Bradley International Airport at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, according to flight tracking service FlightAware, but it levelled off soon after takeoff and then headed back to the airport. Later that day, the rescheduled flight took off, causing a delay of over six hours.

The reason for opening the plane's window has not been determined yet. Chances are that a human error or a maintenance issue could have caused the mishap.

In another incident, an emergency landing was made at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Tuesday night when a United Airlines flight from Houston to Rio de Janeiro turned around after one of the aircraft's engines allegedly caught fire, according to officials.

The FAA conducted its first safety summit in 14 years earlier this month as a result of a number of recent safety issues, including close encounters between aircraft on airport runways around the U.S. At least seven close misses had been reported this year at the time of the summit, which brought a panel of aviation experts together to explore what may be driving the recent series of near-collisions, among other events.