-
My friend who used to work for Corning explained why this happens with Corelle. I will probably butcher the terminology, so any errors are mine :)
Corelle is made by having one layer of glass under pressure between two outer layers, which is what makes it "unbreakable." That pressure is what makes it "explode", but that only happens if the outer layer is compromised - so every time you bang a dish accidentally on a counter with no apparent damage, it could weaken it for the next time. Basically this means that replace any corelle that has obvious scratches because that means the outer layer is compromised.
(I'm not sure knowing this actually solves anything for anyone, but at least I know that it isn't a defect causing it.)
-
I'm sorry you had that experience. It is really terrifying. I'm sure I've posted here about our experience, which happened when our son unloaded the dishwasher. I was in the other room and thought it was a gunshot. I googled and found out it's a thing that can happen, and we got those glasses out of circulation that day. I loved using those glasses, but it was so not worth risking that happening again! I didn't even want to take them to Goodwill and inflict that on someone else.