Delta flight 23 hours late, new windshield

ATLANTA, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A Delta Air Lines plane got a new windshield and flew to Atlanta from Colombia a day late after the first windshield showed cracks in flight, the airline said.

Flight 444, a Boeing 757 originally carrying 115 passengers and six crew members, turned around about 35 minutes into the flight Wednesday after the pilot noticed the cracks in the cockpit windshield, a spokesman said.

The passengers, who were told they would have to spend the night in Bogota while the windshield was replaced and the plane was inspected, were offered hotel rooms and food vouchers, Delta spokesman Anthony Jackson told United Press International.

The same plane, with 18 fewer passengers, flew from Bogota's El Nuevo Dorado International Airport to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Thursday -- arriving 23 hours late -- with no incidents, Jackson told UPI.

The airline has not determined the cause of the cracks, which were on the outer layer of the windshield, Jackson said.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates and oversees all aspects of civil aviation, will review Delta's corrective action and look at what caused the cracks, FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.