A cracked window on a Boeing 737 compels All Nippon Airways flight to return.

A domestic flight operated by Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways (ANA) had to return to its departure airport after a crack was discovered in the cockpit window of the Boeing 737-800 plane. The incident occurred approximately 40 minutes after takeoff, with the crack found in the “second window from the right out of six windows in the cockpit.”

All 65 passengers and crew members on ANA flight 1182 returned safely. The crack was located in the outermost layer of the cockpit window’s four layers of tempered glass. ANA is currently investigating the cause and has reported the incident to Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

The Boeing 737-800 model, in service since 1998, is renowned for its reliability and strong safety record in commercial aviation. However, the incident adds to recent scrutiny of Boeing’s safety record following a mid-air incident involving another model, the 737 Max 9.

On January 5, a door plug on an Alaska Airlines flight detached mid-flight, resulting in a refrigerator-sized hole in the fuselage. This prompted the grounding of 171 Boeing Max 9s in the United States, with Alaska Air and United Airlines awaiting updated emergency inspection guidance from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The FAA announced it would investigate Boeing’s quality control in response to the door plug failure, and the National Transportation Safety Board is conducting a separate investigation from the FAA.