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the cabin pulled her partway through the opening, but she was gravely injured.

The plane, a twin-engine Boeing 737 bound from New York to Dallas with 149 people aboard, was put in a rapid descent by the pilot before making an emergency landing in Philadelphia. Passengers used oxygen masks that dropped from the ceiling while saying their prayers and bracing for impact.

“I just remember holding my husband’s hand, and we just prayed and prayed and prayed,” said passenger Amanda Bourman, of New York. “And the thoughts that were going through my head of course were about my daughters, just wanting to see them again and give them a big hug so they wouldn’t grow up without parents.”

The dead woman was identified as Jennifer Riordan, a mother of two from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a vice president of community relations at a Wells Fargo in New Mexico. The death was the first passenger fatality in an accident involving a U.S. airline since 2009.

Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel said seven other people aboard were treated at the airport for minor injuries.

In a late-night news conference, NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said a preliminary examination of the engine showed evidence of “metal fatigue.” 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, Sumwalt said.

Sumwalt said part of the engine covering was found in Bernville, Pennsylvania, about 70 miles west of Philadelphia.

A full investigation could take 12 to 15 months.

Passengers commended one of the pilots for her cool-headed handling of the emergency. She walked through the aisle and talked with passengers to make sure they were OK after the plane touched down.

“She has nerves of steel. That lady, I applaud her,” said Alfred Tumlinson, of Corpus Christi, Texas. “I’m going to send her a Christmas card, I’m going to tell you that, with a gift certificate for getting me on the ground. She was awesome.”

Tracking data from FlightAware.com showed Flight 1380 was heading west This is what was left of the engine on a Southwest Airlines plane after a midflight explosion Tuesday. The Southwest Airlines 737 made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport. over Pennsylvania at about 32,200 feet and traveling 500 mph when it abruptly turned toward Philadelphia.

Bourman said she was asleep near the back when she heard a loud noise and oxygen masks dropped.

“Everybody was crying and upset,” she said. “You had a few passengers that were very strong, and they kept yelling to people, you know, ‘It’s OK! We’re going to do this!’”

In a recording of conversations between the cockpit and air traffic controllers, an unidentified crew member reported that there was a hole in the plane and that “someone went out.”

Tumlinson said a man in a cowboy hat rushed forward a few rows “to grab that lady to pull her back in. She was out of the plane. He couldn’t do it by himself, so another gentleman came over and helped to get her back in the plane.”

Another passenger, Eric Zilbert, said: “From her waist above, she was outside of the plane.”

Passengers struggled to plug the hole while giving the badly injured woman CPR.

Passengers did “some pretty amazing things under some pretty difficult circumstances,” Thiel said.

As the plane came in for a landing, everyone started yelling to brace for impact, then clapped after the aircraft touched down safely, Bourman said.

“We were very lucky to have such a skilled pilot and crew to see us through it,” Zilbert said. “The plane was steady as a

rock after it happened.”

The last time a passenger died in an accident on a U.S. airliner was 2009, when 49 people on board and one on the ground were killed when a Continental Express plane crashed near Buffalo, New York.

The 737 is the best-selling jetliner in the world and has a good safety record. Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said there were no problems with the plane or its engine when it was inspected Sunday.

The jet’s CFM56-7B engines were made by CFM International, jointly owned by General Electric and Safran Aircraft Engines of France. Last year, the engine maker and the Federal Aviation Administration instructed airlines to make ultrasonic inspections of the fan blades of engines like those on the Southwest jet. The FAA said the move was prompted by a report of a fan blade failing and hurling debris. But it was unclear whether the particular engine that failed Tuesday was covered by the directives.

In 2016, a Southwest Boeing 737-700 blew an engine as it flew from New Orleans to Orlando, Florida, and shrapnel tore a 5-by-16-inch hole just above the wing. The plane landed safely. The NTSB said a fan blade had broken off, apparently because of metal fatigue.

Southwest said Tuesday night that it would inspect similar engines in its fleet over the next 30 days. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speak during a meeting at Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club Tuesday in Palm Beach, Fla.