Southwest rejected inspection request
Engine maker wanted check done in 1 year, airline needed more time
DALLAS — Southwest Airlines sought more time last year to inspect fan blades like the one that snapped off during one of its flights Tuesday in an engine failure that left a passenger dead.
The airline opposed a recommendation by engine manufacturer CFM International to require ultrasonic inspections of certain fan blades within 12 months, saying it needed more time to conduct the work.
Southwest made the comments last year after U.S. regulators proposed making the inspections mandatory. The Federal Aviation Administration has not yet required airlines to conduct the inspections but said late Wednesday that it would do so in the next two weeks.
The manufacturer’s recommendation for more inspections followed an engine blowup on a 2016 Southwest flight. On Tuesday, an engine on another Southwest jet exploded over Pennsylvania, and debris hit the plane. A woman was sucked partway out of the jet when a window shattered. She died later from her injuries.
The plane, a Boeing 737 bound from New York to Dallas with 149 people aboard, made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.
Passenger Andrew Needum, a Texas firefighter, said Thursday that he was helping his family and other passengers with their oxygen masks when he heard a commotion behind him. His wife nodded that it was OK for Needum to leave his family to help the injured woman.
Texas rancher Tim McGinty said Tuesday that he and Needum struggled to pull 43-year-old Jennifer Riordan back into the plane. Needum and retired school nurse Peggy Phillips began administering CPR for about 20 minutes, until the plane landed.
Needum on Thursday declined to detail his rescue efforts out of respect for Riordan’s family.
“I feel for her family. I feel for her two kids, her husband, the community that they lived in,” an emotional Needum told reporters. “I can’t imagine what they’re going through.”
Federal investigators are still trying to determine how the window came out of the plane. Riordan, who was in a window seat in Row 14, was wearing a seat belt.
Philadelphia’s medical examiner said the banking executive and mother of two from Albuquerque, N.M., died from bluntimpact injuries to her head, neck and torso.
Investigators said the blade that broke off midflight and triggered the fatal accident was showing signs of metal fatigue — microscopic cracks from repeated use.