Yesterday, April 17 in the United States, Southwest Airline’s Flight #1380, flying from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Dallas’ Love Field, was forced to perform an emergency landing at Philadelphia after suffering critical damage resulting in the death of one passenger.
After an apparent engine explosion and ‘failure to contain’ shrapnel, ejected debris from the failed engine struck the side of the aircraft and caused a window to burst. When the airplane window failed, the vast rush of escaping internal cabin pressure literally sucked a woman passenger into the newly-formed hole, pinning her half inside & half outside the crippled airplane while it was 5 miles up.
After the explosion, the airplane was brought down to lower altitude, allowing fellow passengers to remove oxygen masks, leave their seats and pull the woman out of the hole and back into the plane’s passenger cabin.
The woman was pronounce dead at Philadelphia hospital. Flight 1380’s roster shows the aircraft transporting 148 passengers and serviced by by a crew of five.
‘ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING’
Flight 1380 passenger ‘Marty’ spoke shortly after the plane had landed in PA; “About 30 minutes after take-off, we heard an explosion. An engine exploded on the left side of the plane, causing one of the windows to fail in row 17, just two aisles from me. I thought I was watching my last minutes on earth. It was absolutely terrifying. It (the plane) felt like it was free-falling for 10 or 15 minutes and, of course, everyone was freaking out. Everyone was crying. It was the scariest experience.”
Passenger Marty added that passengers received no instructions from the crew or pilots during the emergency landing, adding that it wasn’t until after they had finally stopped upon the ground that flight attendants announced that an engine had failed.
SUDDEN EXPLOSION
Passengers report the plane had been aloft for about 30 minutes when an explosion suddenly shattered the side of the plane; immediately triggering oxygen masks to fall.Said one passenger; “I kind of just felt like it was over. We’re flying at 30,000 feet & going 500 miles an hour with this huge, screaming air blasting around us.”
Philadelphia Fire Department Commissioner Adam Thiel confirmed during a hasty press conference that emergency medical workers examined a total of 12 passengers & treated 7 for minor injuries. Commissioner Thiel states his crew discovered a fuel leak and small fire actively burning within the heavily damaged engine compartment.
Yesterday’s passenger death is the first upon a U.S. airline in more than 9 years, with the previous fatal accident happening near Buffalo, New York in 2009. In that
tragedy, a plane owned by Colgan Air crashed and killed 50 souls.
Yesterday’s Boeing 737 was propelled by engines manufactured by CFM International Inc., a joint-venture partnership of General Electric Co. & France’s Safran company.
CFM is the only supplier of jet engines servicing Boeing’s fleet of 737 airplanes, with the company issuing statement of intent to send factory technical representatives to examine Southwest Flight 1380’s failed engine.
Southwest Airlines Co. is a major U.S. airline headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and is North America’s largest low-cost air carrier.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
