seigex

I look at it the other way. You had an engine explosion, explosive decompression, at FL320 .. You had a sharp loss in speed before recovery, and immediate descent and landing. Only one person passed away. Another incident I was thinking about recently where an ANA 737 did a greater than 90 degree roll and nose down pitch due to the FO turning the rudder trim knob rather than the door opening knob to let the pilot in; it was recovered and landed safely with only some minor injuries to flight attendants who weren't buckled in.

Yeah it's horrible the person passed away on the flight, but even with something as crazy as a burst window and violent decompression, 148 out of 149 passengers survived. It was a freak accident.

jeffandnicole

I flew from PHL yesterday at 1:10pm. During the incident, we never heard anything in the airport. Flight boarded slightly late, and we pushed back about 50 minutes late. Flight attendant made the normal, comedy-like safety announcements (was one of the better ones, honestly). Some congestion as we taxied out to the runway. Saw a Southwest plane with flashing lights around it down the other end of the runway but didn't think much about it. As we took off, that plane was basically below us; I couldn't see it out the window.

Only after I landed did I find out what happened! I imagine it was much more hectic in the airport later on as they made announcements and had their press conferences.

kdonnel

Why?

knit-in

Absolutely agree. Why would you not try to connect with friends and family in the face of a potential fatal accident. They were lucky to have survived, but the passengers didn't know that. It is unfortunate that the member you quoted seems to have no one who cares whether they live or die. My sympathies.

LegalTender

Just a hunch. It could probably be written off and scrapped for any salvageable parts.

N753SW that lost its nose gear at LGA [SWA345 / NTSB File DCA13FA131] was scrapped as Southwest considered repairs uneconomical on a 15-year-old airframe.

Mr. Vker

Is that why four drop? One is the H20 mask? Luck (bad luck) of the draw if one grabs it?????

nsx

The 4th mask is for a lap child. That's why only one lap child is allowed per row.

Mr. Vker

I was joking. But I was on a plane once where two parents with two lap children were pissed they couldn't sit in the same row for exactly what you said.

Texas Booster

Just a quick comment from someone who has experienced a slow decompression in a WN 733. AUS-FLL, on Nov 10 2014 about 2:55 pm. I posted a short thread on it back then.

Once the masks dropped the pilots brought the plane down quickly, but not fighter jet quickly. We flew circles outside of Houston at FL100 while the pilots burned through fuel. I do not believe that the plane had WiFi. I did send texts once we got below 5000', which is where my cell texting usually begins. Everyone was calm and we landed without incident about 20 minutes after the mask drop.

Keep in mind that young people handle communications much differently that older folks like I do. I will use 4000+ minutes of talk time every month but only send a few hundred texts. My kids will talk less than 300 minutes per month but send 8000+ texts. Same behavior change regarding data usage and always being accessible.

So without getting into the psychology of impersonal communications over the Internet (my old man view) or the young kids view of keeping dozens of simultaneous connections going at once, folks just communicate differently based upon their age and life experiences.

Our situation was not life threatening but the anxiety level was high. Having a fan blade destroy a window? Completely different level of fear.

So if someone wants to post to FB Live in the moments after an explosive decompression, especially if they are nowhere near the broken out window? Probably just what a younger person will do, and no questions from me. There really is a cycle of life that we all walk through and we had best get prepared for the journey. Understanding that a true accident can happen, that ends a life prematurely, is part of that.

Prayers for the relatives of Mrs. Riordan. They will need lots of support in the days and months to come.

Joel R. Cotton

If it wasn’t for Marty’s FB live video I would have never saw this.

Mr. Vker

ATC recording of flight 1380. May already be posted. Worth a listen.

Mbcijim10

How could Philadelphia be the closest vector? Debris was found in Bernville, PA which is probably only 5 miles north of Reading (RDG). Admittedly 5 miles is probably too close to descend 38,000' and the runway is probably short (don't know anything about runway length), but Harrisburg (MDT), Allentown (ABE), and Lancaster (LNS) are much, much closer than Philadelphia.

I fully admit PHL is the most equipped for emergencies, I'm just wandering why PHL and not the closest airport. Listening to the ATC it was clear they knew people were injured, so I would think the priority would be getting on the ground.

Hats off to the pilot, she sounded cool and collected. I've been in situation where someone died and another time when someone probably should've died. Emergency staff keeping cool and collected isn't that easy even for professionals. If one person died as a result of a triage type situation when 150 people could've died that's a win in my book. I want to be clear I'm not criticizing anyone, just looking for an education.

skywardhunter

If you listen to the ATC I posted yesterday, or the video just shared before your post which is really good to follow the situation, you see the captain asking for vector to the nearest (vector in aviation refers to ATC providing progressive headings to be flown) airport, however before the controller responds the captain comes back and says "Philadelphia".

Typically enroute alternates would have been briefed, and the time to descend, run check lists and set up for a single engine approach and landing would need to be considered. It is very possible (I don't know) that they couldn't have landed sooner even if near an airport. On the downwind (flying parallel to the landing runway in the opposite direction, "down the wind", the captain indicates they'd need a long final, and says 20 miles would be fine, indicating they're still setting up and running checklists. That would include the emergency checklists for an engine out, possibly engine fire if that's the indication they received in the cockpit, hydraulic checks and ultimately a single-engine landing checklist. Landing on a single engine is tricky because not only do they have diminished stopping power due to the loss of reverse thrust on one engine, they may be unable to use the other engine to reverse because of the asynchronous application of thrust, but also because they have less power to perform a go around and a much smaller performance envelope (less power to play with) on approach so they need to fly it very accurately in terms of the vertical profile.

Availability of ILS may also have been a factor, though I don't believe that much analysis went into the first decision to divert to PHL

Mr. Vker

When I listened to the ATC, the info about injuries didn't come up until they were committed to Philly. Look, I could easily be wrong....but here's what I got.

1) Cpt reports single engine power and engine on fire and requests closest airport.
2) Cpt then says fire is out-but single engine power-and then requests Phlly. Things seem to be stable.
3) Cpt is able to maintain 11000 feet.
4) Wasn't until they were near turning for approach they requested medical on the runway.
5) Also need a long runway due to thrust reverse not being available.

It's possible the recording I heard was time compressed or I misunderstood. But I gathered that the injury info came in very late.

seawolf

It was also reported they landed with only flaps set at 5 which translates to a higher landing speed than normal and coupled with not using trust reverse translates to a need for a longer runway.