Plane in peril

A Southwest Airlines plane sitting on the runway at the Philadelphia International Airport after it made an emergency landing in Philadelphia, United States. (Inset) National Transportation Safety Board investigators examining damage to the engine of the plane.

PhilaDelPhia: Catastrophic engine failure on a Southwest Airlines flight from New York to Dallas killed one person and forced an emergency landing, the first fatal incident in US commercial aviation for nearly a decade.

The Boeing 737-700 took off without incident on Tuesday morning but minutes into the flight, passengers heard an explosion in the left engine, which sent shrapnel flying through the window, shattering the glass and causing 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 yesterday. “There is one fatality.” According to US media, seven people were slightly injured.

The identity of the dead person was not immediately disclosed.

“We are saying that this was an engine failure,” Sumwalt said, adding that no fire broke out on the plane.

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 Interna- tional Airport after the crew reported damage to one of the engines, the fuselage and at least one window, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

“The entire Southwest Airlines family is devastated and extends its deepest, heartfelt sympathy to the customers, employees, family members, and loved ones affected by this tragic event,” the company said in a statement.