OKC officer recalls experience on ill-fated Southwest flight
Many have a fear of flying, worrying about what could happen mid-flight.
But few travelers have had to experience the terror of surviving a catastrophic failure, only to get back on another plane hours later.
“Longest day of my life, the most terrifying day of my life. It was almost to the point that there was no hope,” said Sgt. Mike Pribble, a 23-year-veteran of the Oklahoma City Police Department.
Pribble and his girlfriend were among the 149 passengers on Southwest Airlines Flight 1380, which made an emergency landing Tuesday at Philadelphia International Airport after the plane’s engine blew up during a flight from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Love Field in Dallas.
Pribble said he and his girlfriend had traveled to New York so she could run in a half-marathon and enjoy a long weekend. After boarding the plane and taking off, everything was fine for about 30 minutes.
Then, the engine blew. “It was like a bomb went off, there was no doubt in my mind what had just happened,” Pribble said. “Instantly, of course, you get that sinking feeling.
Pribble could hear shrapnel from the damaged engine striking the plane as the passengers put on their emergency oxygen masks. Seated on the right side of the plane, Pribble said he was about six rows in front and opposite of where the engine had just failed.
About two minutes later, in what he described as feeling like an eternity, the screams and panic had begun to subside and the plane’s captain announced the loss of the engine and that they would be making an emergency landing in Philadelphia.
His mind racing and his police training kicking in, Pribble said he began to take stock of the situation. Pilot friends had told him it wasn’t uncommon for a plane to land safely with an engine out.
Moments later, a window blew and the pressure in the cabin dropped.
“Somebody screamed, it wasn’t just a scream like something startled, it was a scream of just utter terror,” Pribble said. “About that time, my girlfriend pulled her mask away from her face and turned to me and said ‘we’re going to die.’”
Over his shoulder, he said he saw two men who looked like “they were wrestling with someone.” He thought it was a panicked traveler being restrained. He would later learn it was an attempt to rescue Jennifer Riordan, Wells Fargo banking executive from New Mexico who was being sucked out through the hull breach.
“She was outside the plane just being held in by her seat belt,” he said.
Pribble scrambled over to offer help, but efforts to revive Riodan failed. Pribble said he could tell she had succumbed to her injuries as he reached for her wrist to check her pulse, noting how frigid she felt from being out of the plane.
“I’ve seen a lot of things. I’m one of those guys I’m not afraid to say when something scares me. I’ve been scared a time or two … that was sheer terror,” Pribble said. “You’re locked in that plane, you can’t get out. You just prepare yourself for the worst possible outcome.”
A cushion placed where the window had once been stopped the pressure loss. Moments later, the plane landed. The smoothest landing he had ever experienced, he said.
He remarked at his surprise of how everyone on board had just handled the ordeal, saying that most had been quiet throughout the flight as everything went wrong. Applause broke out on board after landing.
He said the tragedy that had just occurred weighed on everyone but “you couldn’t hold back the joy that you were back on the ground.”
Pribble offered to rent a car for the rest of the trip back to Oklahoma City, but his girlfriend said she was ready to get on another plane.
“Getting on the plane wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be … what was difficult is once we were on the plane after going through something like that, every little creak and pop just puts you on edge,” Pribble said.
Arriving back in Oklahoma
City about 11 p.m., Pribble said he got up the next morning and went to work. Like high-stress incidents he’s had to deal with in the police department, he said the events of the day run constantly through his mind.
He’s ready for them to stop.