An American Airlines flight from New York to Spain was diverted to Boston Wednesday, and police say a cracked windshield is to blame.
Flight 94 was bound for Madrid after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport. Massachusetts State Police said an Alert 2 was declared for the flight at 9:46 p.m. because the windshield cracked.
An Alert 2 is defined by the Federal Aviation Administration as an indication that an aircraft is having "major difficulties," which lead crew to believe "a difficult or crash landing may be expected," according to a document on a Phoenix government website.
Police say the plane landed at Logan International Airport without any further problems, taxiing to the gate on its own at 10:14 p.m. ET.
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"I know as captain on my airplane, when I am near an airport and a safe haven, I am going to come back and land," said Dennis Tajer, a Boeing 737 captain. "We get paid to make judgement calls, and clearly, flying around with a cracked windshield when there is an airport right there is not the way to go."
Tajer says all pilots have checklists they follow in these situations.
"What it comes down to are two trained and experienced pilots making those judgement calls to protect our passengers," he added. "It is safe to fly, your last line of defense is literally me and thousands of other pilots out there, we are on the airplane with you. When it is safe to go, we are going to go."
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Passengers were escorted off the plane Wednesday night at Logan Airport and ushered into a line, where they waited for assistance.
"When it happened, it was kind of shocking. No one could believe it and then when we return, we land and they say, 'OK, guys you have to spend the night in Boston.' And I think everyone, not freaked out, but we got mad," said Nico Moreno.
The passengers were told their new flight was scheduled for 4 p.m. Thursday.
"We had a to spend the whole night. We don't have food for morning or afternoon because we would have to come here before 2 p.m. and they don't give us vouchers for the food, so that’s the situation," said Moreno.
American Airlines told NBC10 Boston in a statement late Wednesday night that the plane was diverted "due to a maintenance issue."
"The flight landed safely and the aircraft was taken out of service to be inspected by our maintenance team," the airline said. "Customers will re-depart for [Madrid] tomorrow on a replacement aircraft. We never want to disrupt our customers' travel plans and apologize for the inconvenience this has caused."
No further information was immediately available.
