Oprah jet mishap: Not a bird after all

Fire official now says it was wear and tear on the windshield

Celebrity video

Big changes in store for Oprah?
Nov. 8: Is the queen of daytime television preparing to give up her popular talk show to focus on her own cable network? NBC’s Kevin Tibbles reports, then Rolling Stone contributor Toure and CNBC’s Carmen Wong Ulrich join Jenna Wolfe to discuss the financial and cultural impact of a potential move.

Fans walk out on Spears in Australia

One-on-one with Hulk Hogan

Fran Drescher dishes on her love life

Brokaw, Hanks relaunch WWII Museum

Harden unveils ‘Big Book of Dreams’

Slideshow

Best and worst celebrity fashions of 2009
From glamorous gowns to stylish suits to complete fashion failures, a look at the year so far.

more photos

updated 11:34 a.m. ET Dec. 28, 2005

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Officials now say that it was wear and tear, and not a collision with a bird, that damaged the windshield of Oprah Winfrey’s private jet and forced it to return to the city airport.

“There was no bird involved, but the pilot did tell my captain that he felt it was a fatigue thing with the glass,” Battalion Chief John Ahlman, a Santa Barbara City Fire Department spokesman, said Tuesday.

Ahlman had earlier attributed the damage to a bird.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

Winfrey, host of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” and her boyfriend, Stedman Graham, weren’t hurt in Monday’s incident, which occurred just after the jet had taken off from Santa Barbara Municipal Airport.

The 51-year-old talk-show host bought a mansion on 42 acres of land in the hills of Montecito five years ago.