Mother mourned after midair terror
UNITED STATES: A woman died and seven other people were were injured after an engine on a Southwest Airlines plane blew apart, sending shrapnel flying into the fuselage and forcing the pilots to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia yesterday.
It was the first passenger fatality on a US carrier since 2009, and the first passenger fatality in Southwest’s 51-year history.
The Boeing 737 with 144 passengers and five crew aboard was nearly an hour into a journey from New York to Dallas and flying at 32,000 feet (9750m) when the engine blew out. Photos and footage posted to social media showed the aftermath of the explosion, which caused a window to be blown out in a chilling episode that one passenger streamed live on Facebook.
The sudden decompression pulled a female passenger part way through the window opening. Other passengers managed to drag her back inside and gave her CPR, but she was gravely injured.
The pilots took the plane into a rapid descent and made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport as passengers using oxygen masks that had dropped from the ceiling said their prayers and braced for impact.
The dead woman was identified as Jennifer Riordan, a Wells Fargo bank executive and mother of two from Albuquerque, New Mexico. The seven other victims suffered minor injuries.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) sent a team of investigators to Philadelphia. Chairman Robert Sumwalt said a preliminary examination of the engine showed evidence of metal fatigue. One of the fan blades was separated and missing.
Southwest said that as a precaution, it would inspect similar engines in its fleet over the next 30 days.
Passengers commended one of the pilots, Tammie Jo Shults, for her cool-headed handling of the emergency. She walked through the cabin and talked with passengers to make sure they were OK after the plane touched down.
The last incident involving a US airline that resulted in passenger deaths occurred in 2009, when a Colgan Air flight en route from Newark, New Jersey to Buffalo, New York crashed into a house near Buffalo, killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground.
In 2016, a Southwest Boeing 737-700 blew an engine as it flew from New Orleans to Orlando, Florida, and shrapnel tore a hole in the fuselage just above the wing. The plane landed safely. The NTSB said a fan blade had broken off, apparently because of metal fatigue. – Washington Post, AP