A Saturday flight from Amsterdam to Rio de Janeiro turned into an unintended flight to nowhere when a windshield panel cracked, leading to a decision to return to Amsterdam Schiphol for a new plane.
Aircraft windshields are made of two layers of glass with a plastic layer between them; each of the glass layers is at least theoretically strong enough to handle air pressure against it, but for safety, the decision was made at the four-and-a-half hour mark to return. The passengers arrived in Rio just under eleven hours late.
