First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all.

SW flight 2145 DAL-SRQ, operated by a 738 with tail #N8600F, had an emergency return to DAL yesterday (12/24). I was on the flight and meant to post this up last night, but after a six-hour delay and having not seen my family in two weeks, I didn't get around to it till now. I'm kind of surprised no one else has started a thread yet.

Interesting situation. To start, we had a one-hour mechanical delay, during which it seemed like they were working on a control surface on the left wing. Immediately after takeoff, I could tell something was wrong. The climb was sluggish, there was a vibration, and they throttled back way sooner than normal. Less than two minutes after takeoff, pilots came on and briefly said there was a "system issue" and that we were returning to DAL immediately.

I was tracking the flight on Foreflight. Before the pilots even made the announcement we were returning, we had already made a left 180° toward what looked like a left downwind for rwy 13L. However, we then turned right ~90° to the NE and did two left 180°s at ~5000ft and ~240 knots, then very gingerly started to descend and made a left 90° to pickup a sort of left downwind-base hybrid for rwy 13R. The whole time, the subtle but definite vibration persisted and they seemed to be avoiding right turns except for the one right turn to the NE. Absolutely greased the landing, kudos to the pilots. Four-plus hours later we had a new plane and crew, and went on our way to SRQ.

I will be very interested to hear the ATC audio when someone inevitably posts it to YouTube in a day or two. No one was forthcoming with the actual failure. As a pilot, my first guess was an engine issue/partial power loss/abnormal engine reading based on the vibration. But I have this sense that it seemed like there could have been a flight control issue. I found it odd that they seemed to go out of their way to avoid right turns.

Anyway, no other point to the post except just to share the story. Again, Merry Christmas to everyone.