SUCKED OUT OF WINDOW
Terrifying fatal US flight
A PRELIMINARY examination of the blown jet engine of the Southwest Airlines plane that set off a terrifying chain of events and left a businesswoman hanging half outside a shattered window showed evidence of “metal fatigue,” according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Passengers scrambled to save the woman from getting sucked all the way out the window that had been smashed by debris.
She later died, and seven others were injured. The pilots of the twin-engine Boeing 737 bound from New York to Dallas with 149 people aboard took it into a rapid descent and made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.
Oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling and passengers said their prayers and braced for impact.
“I just remember holding my husband’s hand, and we just prayed and prayed and prayed,” passenger Amanda Bourman, of New York said.
The dead woman was ident- ified as Jennifer Riordan, a Wells Fargo bank executive and mother of two from Albuquerque, New Mexico. The seven other victims suffered minor injuries.
The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team of investigators to Philadelphia.
In a late night news conference, NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said one of the engine’s fan blades was separated and missing. The blade was separated at the point where it would come into the hub and there was evidence of metal fatigue, Mr Sumwalt said.
The engine will be examined further to understand what caused the failure. The investigation is expected to take 12 to 15 months.
Photos of the plane on the tarmac showed a missing window and a chunk gone from the left engine, including part of its cover. A piece of the engine covering was later found in Bernville, Pennsylvania, about 112km west of Philadelphia, Mr Sumwalt said.