Southwest flight makes emergency landing due to cracked window

A Newark-bound Southwest Airlines flight made an emergency landing in Cleveland Wednesday after a window cracked.

Photographs taken by a passenger on Southwest Airlines flight WN957, which took off from Chicago Midway International, show a broken window next to a row of passenger seats.

A portion of the window’s glass appeared to be missing.

Southwest issued a statement saying that the plane's flight crew "made the decision to divert the plane to Cleveland for maintenance review of one of the multiple layers of a window pane."

"The flight landed uneventfully in Cleveland," the statement read.

An airline spokesperson said that the aircraft has since been taken out of service for a maintenance review.

The airline said it was working to reaccomodate the flight's 76 passengers.

A video taken from inside the plane showed the flight crew instructing passengers to disembark the aircraft, according to Twitter user Eliott Wolbrom.

The cracked window, located at an emergency exit, shattered about 20 minutes into the flight, according Dan Eleff, the operator of DansDeals, a flight deals website.

"Everyone in that row ran to the back of the plane," the passenger, who was seated several rows behind the window, told Eleff. "Some people started crying hysterically. The crew was very calm and professional."

The plane did not lose pressure but the pilots took it down to a lower altitude as a precautionary measure, Eleff added.

Southwest has been embroiled in controversy since a woman was killed after one of its plane's engines exploded, sending shrapnel from the engine through a window.

Wells Fargo executive Jennifer Riordan, 43, died after she was partially sucked out of the shattered window.

Related: Southwest flight makes emergency landing in Philadelphia

Wednesday's incident draws renewed attention to the airline's aircraft maintenance issues.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.