United Airlines flight 1093 from Denver to Los Angeles was forced to divert to Salt Lake City last week after a mid-air collision that cracked the windshield and injured the pilot.
Initial speculation pointed to “space debris” as the culprit of the damage. While the National Transportation Safety Board conducts its investigation, John Dean — the CEO of weather balloon firm WindBorne — thinks he may know the real cause of the collision.
“Yes, I think this was a WindBorne balloon,” Dean responded to one social media user’s theory via X on Monday, October 20. “We learned about UA1093 and the potential that it was related to one of our balloons at 11pm PT on Sunday and immediately looked into it. At 6am PT, we sent our preliminary investigation to both NTSB and FAA, and are working with both of them to investigate further.”
He continued, “The system is designed to not pose a risk to human life in the worst case event of a collision…And indeed, there were no serious injuries and no depressurization event to my knowledge as a result of the collision.”
Dean went on to say that the injury to the pilot, which can be seen in photos circulating online, is “unacceptable.”
Yes, I think this was a WindBorne balloon. We learned about UA1093 and the potential that it was related to one of our balloons at 11pm PT on Sunday and immediately looked into it. At 6am PT, we sent our preliminary investigation to both NTSB and FAA, and are working with both of… https://t.co/TDtyt08fMe
— John Dean (@johndeanl) October 21, 2025
After the collision, the plane descended to 26,000 feet and was able to safely land in Salt Lake City an hour later.
