Woman killed on flight as jet’s engine explodes

Philadelphia, April 18: Catastrophic engine failure on a Southwest Airlines flight from New York to Dallas killed a mother of two and forced an emergency landing on Tuesday, the first fatal incident in US commercial aviation for nearly a decade.

The Boeing 737- 700 took off without incident, but minutes into the flight, passengers heard an explosion in the left engine, which sent shrapnel flying through the window, shattering the glass and leading oxygen masks to drop, witnesses said.

“We believe there were parts coming out of this engine,” Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told a news conference, confirming engine failure but no fire. “There is one fatality,” Sumwalt said. The person killed was later revealed to be Jennifer Riordan, a 43- year- old bank executive and mother- of- two from New Mexico, according to officials from her hometown as well as local media. US media reported seven people were slightly injured. “We are saying this is an engine failure,” Sumwalt said.

Southwest Airlines said flight 1380 had been en route from New York’s LaGuardia domestic airport to Dallas Love Field with 144 passengers and five crew members onboard. It landed at Philadelphia International Airport at 11.20 am ( 1520 GMT) after crew reported damage to one of the engines, fuselage and at least one window .— AFP

The Boeing 737700 took off normally, but minutes into the flight, passengers heard an explosion in the left engine, which sent shrapnel flying through the window, shattering the glass

— AP Photos taken by a passenger, Marty Martinez, of the Southwest Airlines airplane show the damage to the jet engine that blew out during transit and the subsequent damage to the window that resulted in the death of a woman sitting beside the window.