Breaking: A Passenger Has Died in A Southwest Accident
Meg Butler April 17, 2018
A Southwest flight was forced to make an unscheduled, emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport today after it suffered severe damage to an engine.
While there is no official word on exactly what happened to the engine, social media photos of the damage depict an engine that is not only damaged but also missing several components.
Update: We originally reported that “all 143 passengers and five crew members to Philadelphia International Airport safely.”
Unfortunately, this is not the case. One passenger is reported to have died after suffering a heart attack.
Another passenger was sucked out of the plane when a piece of the broken engine shattered a window. She was “pulled back in by other passengers” and rushed to the hospital after the plane landed.
What a flight! Made it!! Still here!! #southwest #flight1380 pic.twitter.com/Cx2mqoXVzY
— Joe Marcus (@joeasaprap) April 17, 2018
The Boeing 737-700 originated at New York LaGuardia Airport and was headed to Dallas when, passengers say, “All of a sudden we heard an explosion,” said passenger Marty Martinez to the local CBS station. “And I come to find out that the engine exploded on the left side of the plane.”
Passengers on the plane were understandably panicked and Martinez’s Facebook Live video of the includes the caption, “Something is wrong with our plane! It appears we are going down! Emergency landing!! Southwest flight from NYC to Dallas!!” Martinez told CBS News that the plane had “blood everywhere.”
One of the captions on his video livestream reads:
Engine exploded (we think) and shattered one of the windows killing a passenger. Flight attendants ran over calling for passengers to help cover the hole as they broke down and began uncontrollably crying and looking horrified as they looked outside. Plane dropped dramatically and it smelled like fire with ash coming down on everyone thru the vents. Absolutely terrifying, but we are okay.
Martinez continued later:
Someone on the plane had a heart attack and it looks like an engine blew out then a window was blown open. We are still on the plane and they are trying to revive a woman on the plane.
Posted by Marty Martinez on Tuesday, April 17, 2018
@SouthwestAir I want to thank the crew of SWA 1380 for a great job getting us to the ground safely after losing in engine #angelsinthesky pic.twitter.com/QL0YPUp0Vj
— Kristopher Johnson (@EMMS_MrJohnson) April 17, 2018
To read more, go to Gizmodo.
Seen a few pics of the passengers and most do not have the oxygen masks over their noses. Anyone watching the safety demo? Or maybe the FA's demo-ing it and holding it far from their faces (can't blame them for not wanting to touch them), and making blowing motions towards the life preserver tube isn't getting the point across.....
Great job by the pilots handling the situation. But who's in a situation like that and thinks "Man, think how many likes I'll get if I do a Facebook Live!"?
The title needs some serious editing. By all accounts in the press, no one was sucked out the window.