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A PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION of a blown jet engine of a Southwest Airlines plane that set off a terrifying chain of events and left a businesswoman hanging half outside a shattered window showed evidence of “metal fatigue”, according to the US National Transportation Safety Board.
Passengers scrambled to save the woman from getting sucked out the window that had been smashed by debris. She later died, and seven others were injured.
The pilots of the twin-engine Boeing 737 bound from New York to Dallas with 149 people aboard took it into a rapid descent yesterday and made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.
Oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling and passengers 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.
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 sent a team of investigators to Philadelphia.
In a late night news conference, NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said one of the engine’s fan blades was separated and missing. The blade was separated at the point where it would come into the hub and there was evidence of metal fatigue, Sumwalt said.
The engine will be examined further to understand what caused the failure. The investigation is expected to take 12 to 15 months.
Photos of the plane on the tarmac showed a missing window and a chunk gone from the left engine, including part of its cover. A piece of the engine covering was later found in Bernville, Pennsylvania, about 112 kilometers west of Philadelphia, Sumwalt said.
As a precaution, Southwest said last night that it would inspect similar engines in its fleet over the next 30 days.
“That lady, I applaud her”
Passengers praised one of the pilots, Tammie Jo Shults, for her cool-headed handling of the emergency.
The former Navy pilot was at the controls when the plane made the emergency landing. She walked through the aisle and talked with passengers to make sure they were OK after the aircraft touched down.
“She has nerves of steel. That lady, I applaud her,” said Alfred Tumlinson, of Corpus Christi, Texas.
I’m going to send her a Christmas card, I’m going to tell you that, with a gift certificate for getting me on the ground. She was awesome.
In a recording of conversations between the cockpit and air traffic controllers, an unidentified crew member reported that there was a hole in the plane and “someone went out”.
Tumlinson said a man in a cowboy hat rushed forward a few rows to grab the woman and pull her back in.
“She was out of the plane. He couldn’t do it by himself, so another gentleman came over and helped to get her back in the plane, and they got her,” he said.
Passengers struggled to somehow plug the hole while giving the badly injured woman CPR.
As the plane came in for a landing, everyone started yelling to brace for impact, then clapped after the aircraft touched down safely, Bourman said.
No safety concerns
Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said there were no problems with the plane or its engine when it was inspected on Sunday.
The jet’s CFM56-7B engines were made by CFM International, jointly owned by General Electric and Safran Aircraft Engines of France. CFM said in a statement that the CFM56-7B has had “an outstanding safety and reliability record” since its debut in 1997.
Last year, the engine maker and the Federal Aviation Administration instructed airlines to make ultrasonic inspections of the fan blades of engines like those on the Southwest jet.
The FAA said the move was prompted by a report of a fan blade failing and hurling debris. A Southwest spokeswoman said the engine that failed yesterday was not covered by that directive, but the airline announced it would speed up ultrasonic inspections of fan blades of its CFM56-series engines anyway.
“There’s a ring around the engine that is meant to contain the engine pieces when this happens,” said John Goglia, a former NTSB member. “In this case it didn’t. That’s going to be a big focal point for the NTSB — why didn’t (the ring) do its job?”
In 2016, a Southwest Boeing 737-700 blew an engine as it flew from New Orleans to Orlando, Florida, and shrapnel tore a 5-by-16-inch hole just above the wing. The plane landed safely. The NTSB said a fan blade had broken off, apparently because of metal fatigue.
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Well, they clung on for long enough, who would have known they would be burying themselves? The worst possible leader given the parties absolute disconnection with its base.
@Local Ore: that’s the party though – he just reflects what they stand for or rather that they stand for nothing.
@Peter McGlynn: Bacik is the worst potential leader possible for Labour. Labour’s grass routes organisation needs to go back to the people and their members and ask them what they Labour to be? They need the most dramatic reset in the history of politics in the state if they are to survive because Bacik represents everything they should not, and should never, be. Self serving, self righteous and out of touch with the people who were once their base. If Labour is to exist in the future, as they won’t survive her leadership, they need to get rid of people like her – Joan Burtons biggest supporter – and reset with proper, working class, centre left people
@Local Ore: Bacik is one of the most competent parliamentarians in Dail Eireann. I’d imagine we’ve passed the low point for Labour, and they will be seen by a lot of people as a safe place for a protest vote compared to SF, or the greens.
Their attempt to curb the worst excesses of FG in the previous administration backfired on them, and SF in particular managed to heap the blame for any cutbacks on Labour despite them being a minor partner in that coalition. Labour will do a SF on it next time, sitting safely in opposition where they won’t have to make decisions.
@John Mulligan:
Her solution to just about everything is more abortion.
I suppose she’s right in a way. There’s less problems to deal with if nobody is left around.
What an inspiring woman.
@John Mulligan: John, I was a Labour supporter for years, for my shame, and I met the woman while she was with Joan Burton. To describe a person who has failed to be elected in more than two thirds of their attempts running for political positions, who spent 15 years in the Seanad – a completely irrelevant body – and has been a TD for less than year as one of the most competent parliamentarians in Dàil Eireann is ludicrous in the extreme! Are you basing that on her few months in the Dàil? Are you basing it on her ineffectual time in the Seanad or what are you basing it on? Completely ridiculous claim to make. I would say she is a competent and intelligent politician but has no connection, at all, to the core values of what Labour used to be or should be. Your statement is ridiculous
@Credalytics ☘️:
That’s so unfair, she’s for Euthanasia too. Another Millionaire “Socialist ” Skumbag.
The open road to the leadership of the Labour party with Ivana Bacik will ensure the Labour party will follow the PDs into the dustbin of history.
@Donal Desmond: And they don’t see it all, the handful of them remaining think this is a progressive step…. I, like many others, once voted Labour, I’m ashamed of what they have become and can’t believe there is anyone left in that party that could ever support a Joan Burton acolyte as leader in 2022
@Donal Desmond: You never know. I can see Bacik transform the party from low single digits to, well, slightly higher low single digits..
@Toon Army: Agree, That’s as good as it will get.
@Local Ore: there are none so blind as them that won’t see.
If Bacik is leader will she have to speak to any poor people or will she have an interpreter for that?
From one dose to another…
@Roland Tarrant: If Alan Kelly is as clever as he is given credit for, he will join FG or FF or whatever before that absolute dose is announced leader. There cannot be another TD with a brain cell that would support JB2.0 as leader? Surely?
Disconnected from the working class years ago so who cares who the leader is.
Why does it still insist on calling itself the ‘Labour’ Party? These people live in a political fantasy world. They have zero affinity with the working people of this country and Ivana Bacik exemplifies that absurd disconnect from reality…
If that’s the direction that Labour are heading, they might as well fast track a merger with the Social Democrats ASAP. Absolutely pointless having two identical parties and they are far removed from the once respectable Labour party who actually represented the interests of the common man and woman.
@Longlin: why would the Soc Dems want or agree to that???
@Graham Manning: Could you outline the major ideological differences that would warrant Ivana Bacik and the like of Holly Cairns being in different parties? Looking on from the outside, I would think that they weren’t far off being identical.
Bacik as leader is a death sentence for Labour.
You couldn’t make this up. Whatever chance you had of getting a no. 2,3,4 vote from the left leaning voter, you’ve none now. Truely astonishing selection.
This is will see the end of the Labour Party. I voted Labour up until they entered government in 2011 and turned their back on their traditional voters. I was delighted to hear that Alan Kelly was no longer going to be leader, however when I heard that they were considering Ivana Bacik as leader I realised that they have learned nothing.
Ms Bacik was one of the elite that was at the party in celebration of the awarding of a Government job to Catherine Zappone.
I wish they would look back to their routes and realise that their traditional voters don’t want a party that cozys up to FF and FG.
I don’t want a right wing labour party, looks like I will never again vote for Labour
I suppose its akin to inheriting a set of fine bone china tea cups with no handles. They only look good from a certain angle.
@Charles McCarthy:
Beautiful, I hope you don’t mind if I use this.
Labour pressed the self destruct button a long time ago.
Consigned to history.
The kiss of death from Varadkar!
I see Ivana Bacik is the favourite,they are welcome to her it seems to me that she is anti everthing that is good
They must have scraped all the way through the bottom of the barrel now, and turned it into a big tube.
Another party down the drain, Old enough to remember dick spring and the difference now
@Hugh Mc Donnell: imagine what he thinks of the party nowadays.
@Seamus Mac:
Probably proud, himself and Millionaire Fergus Finlay dismantled the Labour movement.
Wow is this still news.
Oh dear just another lamb to the slaughter.
Surprised to hear Alan Kelly Got Emotional when he was resigning. He wasn’t very emotional when he was threatening to cut people’s water off ten year’s ago GUUD LUCK *ank stain
god help us
Maybe I misheard; the reason for the heave against Alan Kelly was because of his association with the antics of the 2011-2016 government and in particular, the push to levy water charges. Then it was announced that the front runner to replace Mr Kelly is Ivana Bacik. But Ms Bacik was part of that government too and voiced strong support for water charges stating during the debate in the Seanad “we must incentivise to avoid excessive usage” The “conservation” malarkey was the same excuse being used by members of Fine Gael for the introduction of the charges. Is there a pointer here as to what Labour’s real problem is? Maybe too many of the senior active members are actually in the wrong party?
@Jim O’Sullivan:
Thanks Jim, well said.
What about God Nash probably the one Labour TD with real legislative achievement i.e. increasing minimum wage and Construction Contracts Act among others. Down to earth with excellent communication skills.
Communication skills? Talk Bolloks an convince everyone you are sincere.
@Liam Byrne: I assume Liam you are referring to God Nash
This is doomed to failure ,–AGAIN -’Another one to end in Tears.
Jaysus a lot of angry people posting these comments
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