Of the 149 passengers on board, one person died and was sucked into the window.
Due to the explosion, the cabin was depressurized, the plane began to fall sharply
In the United States, Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 from New York to Dallas made an emergency landing at Philadelphia Airport. In a Boeing 737-700, about 20 minutes after takeoff, the left engine exploded at an altitude of about 10 thousand meters. Onboard there were 144 passengers and five crew members.
After the explosion of the engine, fragments pierced the fuselage and smashed the window. One of the passengers, who was sitting near the window, was wounded and pulled through the window due to the depressurization of the cabin. According to passengers, they dragged her back into the cabin for several minutes, as due to the sharp drop, there were strong pressure drops.
“Well, flight! Everything worked out! We are alive!"
During the landing, the airplane smelled strongly of burning and there was smoke, but there was no open fire. The pilot made an emergency landing at the Philadelphia airport: firefighters doused Boeing 737-700 engines and wings with foam, and passengers were evacuated. According to media reports, one person died, about seven were injured by shrapnel, and another suffered a heart attack.
Promotional video:
One of the passengers talked about what was happening on board on his Facebook
Passenger Marty Martinez has posted several videos and photos of what is happening on board a Boeing 737-700 during an emergency landing. He paid for the Wi-Fi on board and was one of the first to talk about what was happening, including the woman falling out of the window.
According to Martinez's post, most of the passengers remained calm and sat in their seats in oxygen masks. After that, some of them shared that the abrupt landing lasted about 30 minutes, which is why they had time to pray and mentally say goodbye to their relatives.
A hole in the window of a Boeing 737-700. Photo from the passenger's Facebook.
The landing was successful, with one of the first female fighter pilots at the helm
As Wired noted, both engine explosion and depressurization are rare, so the situation was a real test for pilots. While the National Transportation Safety Board did not disclose details, it is known from the transcripts of the negotiations that the pilots remained calm and reported on all actions.
According to Gizmodo, one of the pilots was Tammie Jo Shults, who greeted passengers as they exited the plane. In the 1980s, she became one of the first Hornet fighter pilots in the US Navy. Schults and her colleagues advocated empowering women in aviation and actively challenged discrimination in the military.
Flight 1380 pilot Tammy Joe Schults (left). Photo Heavy.com
One passenger who was sucked into the window died
According to the stories of passengers, the woman who was pulled into the window was named Jennifer Riordan, she fell out of the plane almost to her waist. She was pulled out of the window, covered in blood, several passengers, including a nurse, gave her heart massage and artificial respiration for more than 20 minutes.
Soon after the incident, a recording of the pilots' talks appeared on YouTube, where one of them was heard saying: "We have a broken window and someone flew out there." Eyewitnesses said that when the passenger was pulled out of the window, one of the men gagged him with his back to maintain the pressure.
Shortly after landing, representatives of the city and the mayor of Albuquerque, where Riordan was from, confirmed her death. As the media found out, she worked for Wells Fargo and helped in a Catholic children's school, she has two children.
Jennifer Riordan became the first passenger since 2009 to die on board an American airline in an accident.