Southwest Airlines will speed up inspections of all related engines out of extra caution, the airline said, after a passenger was killed when an engine on one of its planes exploded and broke apart mid-air.
Southwest Flight 1380, which took off from New York bound for Dallas with 144 passengers and five crew members on board, made an emergency landing in Philadelphia yesterday after an engine on the Boeing 737-700 ripped apart, killing bank executive Jennifer Riordan, 43.
Southwest said it was accelerating its existing engine inspection programme and conducting ultrasonic inspections of fan blades of the CFM56 engines on all of its the 737 jets.
The airline said it expects to complete the inspections within 30 days. Minimal flight disruptions may result, it 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," Southwest said in a statement.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt said yesterday at the Philadelphia airport that a preliminary investigation found an engine fan blade missing, having apparently broken off, and that there was metal fatigue at the point where it would normally be attached.
Mr Sumwalt said the investigation could take 12 to 15 months to complete.
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What happens when a plane window smashes?
In August 2016, a Southwest flight made a safe emergency landing in Pensacola, Florida after a fan blade separated from the same type of engine and debris ripped a hole above the left wing.
That incident prompted the US Federal Aviation Administration to propose last year that similar fan blades undergo ultrasonic inspections and be replaced if they failed.
Flight 1380 took off from New York's La Guardia Airport at around 10.30am and was diverted to Philadelphia about 20 minutes later.
The engine on the plane's left side threw off shrapnel when it blew apart, shattering a window and causing rapid cabin depressurisation that nearly pulled a female passenger through the hole, according to witness accounts.
One passenger was taken to a hospital in critical condition and seven people were treated for minor injuries at the scene, Philadelphia Fire Department spokeswoman Kathy Matheson said.
Ms Riordan's death was the first in a US commercial aviation accident since 2009, according to (NTSB) statistics.
It is reported that Ms Riordan was a mother-of-two from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Mr Sumwalt added that part of the engine's covering, called a cowling, was found in Bernville, Pennsylvania, about 112km from the Philadelphia airport.
"It is very unusual so we are taking this event extremely seriously," Mr Sumwalt said.
"This should not happen and we want to find out why it happened so that preventative measures can be put in place."
"We have a part of the aircraft missing, so we're going to need to slow down a bit," the plane's captain, Tammy Jo Shults, told air traffic controllers in audio from the cockpit.
Asked by a controller if the jet was on fire, Cpt Shults said it was not, but added, "They said there is a hole and someone went out."
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(Above: Cockpit audio)
"A woman was partially, was drawn out of the plane and pulled back in by other passengers," Todd Bauer, whose daughter was on the flight, said.
Passenger Marty Martinez posted on Facebook live video of himself on the plane, wearing a breathing mask, as the plane descended.
A short time later he posted pictures of a blown-out window and the badly damaged engine.
Television images showed that most of the outer casing around the left engine of the Boeing Co 737-700 ripped away and a window near the engine on the plane's left side was missing.
"All of a sudden, we heard this loud bang, rattling, it felt like one of the engines went out. The oxygen masks dropped," passenger Kristopher Johnson told CNN. "It just shredded the left-side engine completely. ... It was scary."
