Woman Partially Sucked Out of Jet When Window Breaks Mid-Flight; Plane Lands Safely in Philadelphia
Category: News & Politics
Via: badfish-voted-most-popular-member-for-4-years • 6 years ago • 43 comments
A Southwest Airlines flight landed safely in Philadelphia Tuesday after the jet violently depressurized when a piece of an engine flew into and broke a window, according to passenger accounts and the pilot's conversations with air traffic control.
Robert Sumwalt with the National Transportation Safety Board said one passenger died as a result of the incident.
A woman was partially sucked out of the plane when the window imploded, a passenger's father-in-law said relaying information from his daughter.
Todd Baur told NBC10 the woman was partially "drawn out" of the plane before being "pulled back in by other passengers."
The pilot, speaking to air traffic control via radio, asked for paramedics to meet the airplane to help injured passengers.
"We have a part of the aircraft missing," the yet-to-be-identified pilot said.
Asked whether the plane was on fire, she responded: "No, it's not on fire but part of it's missing. They said there is a hole and someone went out."
One passenger was rushed to a Philadelphia hospital with critical injuries, Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel said. Twelve other passengers were evaluated by medics and seven of those were treated for minor injuries at the scene, he said.
The Dallas-bound Boeing 737-700 — numbered flight 1380 — made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport around 11:20 a.m. Tuesday after taking off from LaGuardia Airport in New York City. There were 149 people onboard. A ground stop was put into effect at the airport as crews responded.
The jet's left engine blew shortly after takeoff, passengers said. Pieces of shrapnel flew into the plane's fuselage and at least one window, the passengers and the FAA said.
Passengers shared photos of the plane's left engine with major damage. The engine inlet was shredded with metal bent outward. The pane of a window just behind the left wing was missing.
The plane was flying around 32,500 feet when the incident happened, according to an altitude-tracking tool on Flight Aware . The plane descended by more than 3,000 feet per minute until the pilots leveled out around 10,000 feet.
Arthur Wolk, an aviation expert, said that is a modest rate of descent and indicated that the pilot had control of the aircraft.
Baur described the crew as "incredible," saying that the pilots and flight attendants acted quickly and calmly.
Still, a window bursting mid-flight left some passengers unnerved.
One terrified passenger posted a live video to his Facebook page during the ordeal. The grainy footage shows a man attempting to secure his yellow oxygen mask while updating loved ones following his feed.
‘We Have Part of the Aircraft Missing’: Pilot to Air Control
![[NATL] ‘We Have a Part of the Aircraft Missing’: Southwest Pilot, Air Traffic Control Talk Emergency Landing](https://media.nbcphiladelphia.com/images/620*349/swflight.jpg)
"Something is wrong with our plane! It appears we are going down! Emergency landing!! Southwest flight from NYC to Dallas!!" Facebook user Marty Martinez wrote. He then added, "We are bracing for landing!!"
In a brief statement, Southwest Airlines said it was working to gather more information.
"Safety is always our top priority at Southwest Airlines, and we are working diligently to support our customers and crews at this time," the statement said.
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Dear god! That had to be awful!
that would be the only time I would want a big fat butt, so I did not fly out that window.
my skinny little butt would not have even slowed me down on my way out... LOL
It wouldn't be fat any more by the time it was out. Those windows are only about a foot square and the pressure is enormous. Think of being squeezed out of the little triangular windows that they used to have in cars. Like toothpaste through the hole in the tube.
They are now saying the woman died of injuries. Wonder what happened to that engine to cause it to explode like that.
Usually, when a jet engine explodes, it's because the fan blades in the turbine are destroyed. That causes pieces of the blades to be sucked into the ignition chamber. When it happens, it's usually because one of the blades comes apart from stress or metal fatigue and a piece of the broken blade hits all of the others (the fan is rotating very fast), or because something solid goes into the intake and hits the blades. What usually causes the second to happen is when a bird hits the engine. Unlikely to happen at 30,000 feet, though. No birds up there.
Ok...obviously you don't pay attention to the instructions
You put your own mask on first then the kids'. You can't help anybody if you're passed out
Sometimes they do; sometimes they don't. In the end, the only ones who really need to remember that are the people controlling the airplane. The rest won't die of oxygen starvation in the time it takes to descend to 12,000 feet or so.
Remember back in the 80's when some people believed that the cosmos acted in such a way as to give you good days and bad days, and that it was predictable? The word then was that you should never fly on one of your bad days. That didn't worry me at all. I was, however, a bit concerned about flying on one of the pilot's bad days.
A catastrophic failure of a compressor fan blade in the most likely cause. Nothing else would have the ability to cause that level of damage. Engines are supposed to have a blanket to prevent a broken blade from exiting the engine housing, so something catastrophic happened. If it happened at 40K feet that is too high for an object being ingested, except possibly ice.
The article said they levelled out at 32,500 feet. And of course it was a catastrophic engine failure, the question is what caused the engine to come apart. I hope they find answers quickly.
Hold on for your answer. She has to google it first.
Isn't that the best way to research an answer?
You are just jealous because my mind is not encumbered by religious BS. I get my news from the BBC/NPR. I didn't google it. The photographs told me all that I need to know.
This is exactly what I said before. It was the failure of a fan blade, due to metal fatigue. The question now is when was the engine last serviced and what are the records on these blades because they are a known failure point.
Magnolia' took a cheap shot at me and I replied.
Ha! I was thinking that too when I read his reply. It was the first episode I had ever seen of TZ and I remember busting out laughing because the guy was freaking out and that monster kept just eating the engine and waving at the guy.
William Shatner at his best.
Trump claimed he is the reason no plane has crashed during his tenure. Does he get dinged for this simply because no one died and the planed landed?
someone did die
Federal official: 1 dead after Southwest plane makes emergency landing
PHILADELPHIA — A Southwest Airlines jet apparently blew an engine at about 30,000 feet and got hit by shrapnel that smashed a window and damaged the fuselage Tuesday, killing a passenger and injuring seven others, authorities said.
The plane, a twin-engine Boeing 737 bound from New York to Dallas with 149 people aboard, made an emergency landing in Philadelphia just before noon as passengers breathing through oxygen masks that dropped from the ceiling said their prayers and braced 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."
National Transportation Safety Board chairman Robert Sumwalt said one person was killed. It was the first passenger fatality in an accident involving a U.S. airline since 2009, Sumwalt said.
Seven other people were treated for minor injuries, Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel said. He said there was a fuel leak in one of the engines when firefighters arrived and a small fire was quickly brought under control.
It would not be a surprise to see Trump continue to claim there have been no fatalities under his watch though. He's that kind of guy.
I'm sorry but why do you have to try to make this about Trump? Did he tweet that stupid comment? Yes but back in January. Someone has died in a tragic accident and you have to bring Trump into the conversation? Why?
Simple answer: TDS.
How stupid to make it policital. Someone died. Try to keep your eye on the ball.
Paula - why did you have to bring politics into this discussion?
A woman died in a horrific accident caused by mechanical failure - and you have to bring in politics?
I flew home on Southwest from Baltimore last night. Scary stuff. Hope they can determine what caused the engine to fail so catastrophically and implement mitigation to ensure the passenger cabin can be further protected.
I just heard another SWA had to make an emergency landing in Nashville for hitting a bird.
There is nothing that Southwest can do about that. Bird strikes are a common risk of flight.
Thanks Capt. Obvious.
I caught this on 60 minutes Sunday - it was a very good segment.
Don't believe everything you hear. From what I understand this is a systemic problem finally just surfacing in the aeronautics industry.
I have a good friend who just got out of airplane maintenance after 25 years. He says he left because of the lack of responsibility of the owners have towards safety in maintenance.
These days almost all of the maintenance and repair work on major airlines is all contracted out to the lowest bidder. Corners are being cut and he says he believes people will die because of this change. ( He is now working in marine maintenance where no one will probably die from poor maintenance practices)
He also stopped flying commercially himself and recommended to all he knows to do the same if at all possible till this problem gets fully corrected within the industry.
Go figure, go cheep have problems.