Flight diverts three times in one journey

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A US flight appears to have been diverted three times in just one journey.

Delta Air Lines flight 760 from Salt Lake City, Utah, set off on 31 March bound for Washington Ronald Reagan airport (DCA), but the usually 3hr 30m flight made several unexpected stops.

The first diversion was an emergency landing in Denver, Colorado, after the cockpit window “spontaneously” shattered 30,000 feet in the air.

Images of the cracked windshield posted online showed dozens of fractures but the glass remained intact enough for the plane to land safely.

Rachel Wright, one of 198 passengers on board, said “everything seemed normal” before their flight was diverted about 90 minutes into the flight.

“They came on the loudspeaker saying that the windshield had shattered, and we were diverting to Denver in about 10 minutes. I was sure I had misheard them but I hadn’t,” Ms Wright told KUTV.

“Out of an abundance of caution, the flight crew diverted into Denver and the plane landed routinely,” the airline said in a statement following the incident. “We sincerely apologise for the delay and inconvenience to their travel plans.”

After a change of plane, flight 760 set off again but was thwarted once more – this time diverting to Richmond airport, Virginia.

This time, the reason for the diversion was unclear, although thunderstorms were reported in the DC area, which could have been the cause of the unscheduled stop.

From there, it should have been a straightforward hop to DCA, but passengers instead touched down at the wrong Washington DC airport: Washington Dulles, 28 miles away.

One planespotter noticed the anomaly and posted about it on the online aviation forum Flyertalk.

In a post titled “1 flight with 3 diversions - a record?”, he wrote: “Curious if any FTers were on the flight and can share any details of this epic journey?

“I'm sure some passengers just took a rideshare home from IAD, but if you parked at DCA you'd still need to get there to get to your car. Would Delta just pay for taxis in this situation? I'm also wondering if this was the first time Delta ever flew from DEN to RIC.”

The Independent has contacted Delta for further information about the second two diversions.