Tranchin said that one of the passengers helping had at one point placed his lower back up against the opening in the plane, in an apparent effort to help with the compression.
SW. By Susan Warren Bloomberg. Southwest Airlines is still a good company.
100 million U.S.-operated airline flights had flown safely in this country over 9-years since the last time a passenger died in an accident. It appeared to have been separated at what Mr. Sumwalt called “the hub.”“Our preliminary examination of this was that there’s evidence of metal fatigue where the blade separated,” he said.A similar episode occurred in August 2016 when a Southwest Airlines flight headed to Orlando, Fla., made an emergency landing in Pensacola, Fla., because of engine failure. "Flight attendants rushed up. However that does not mean that we have been correctly estimating the risks of airline crashes.
This kind of flight environment calls for conservative risk management, meaning the allocation of appropriate resources to inspection and maintenance of the airline’s fleet.For failing to engage in conservative risk management in its inspection and maintenance policy, Southwest was fined by the FAA.
The engine type is used on all of Southwest's Boeing 737-700 and Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Mark Makela / Reuters “There was a lot of blood because she was hit by some of the shrapnel coming off the engine after it exploded.”Mr. "It was just all incredibly traumatic, and finally when we ... came to a halt, of course, the entire crowd was (in) tears and people crying and we were just thankful to be alive. Amanda Bourman/AP
NTSB/AP
Tranchin said he spent those precious minutes texting goodbyes to people important in his life.“It’s a wild experience,” he said.
Airline accidents are much rarer now than they were several decades ago.
Sumwalt said an engine cowling was later discovered in Bernville, Pa., about 70 miles northwest of Philadelphia.Once the plane was on the ground, investigators discovered that a fan blade was missing from the plane’s operating engine. “This should not happen.”Southwest Airlines Engine Explodes in Flight, Killing a PassengerA Southwest Airlines plane at Philadelphia International Airport after it made an emergency landing there on Tuesday. Other passengers began trying to plug the hole with jackets and other objects but to no avail. Robert L. Sumwalt, the agency’s chairman, said on Wednesday morning that investigators had found evidence of metal fatigue on the left engine.Matt Tranchin, 34, who was on the plane, said, “I think, like most passengers, I thought I was going to die.”The Southwest plane, a two-engine Boeing 737, made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport at about 11:20 a.m. Tranchin told WPVI the crew was frantically trying to plug a hole left when a window shattered.
One person was killed and seven others sustained minor injuries on a Southwest Airlines flight from New York to Dallas when an engine exploded in midair on Tuesday, shattering a window that passengers said partially sucked a woman out of the aircraft.The explosion, which happened about 20 minutes into the flight, prompted a desperate effort among flight attendants and passengers to save the woman, identified as Jennifer Riordan, a Wells Fargo executive from Albuquerque. The engine type is used on all of Southwest's Boeing 737-700 and Boeing 737-800 aircraft.
I didn't know what state the plane or even the pilot was in, if we were in condition to land," he said.