Woman almost sucked out of plane after engine explodes on Southwest jet [UPDATE: One Person dead]

by The Right Scoop

An engine exploded during a Southwest Air flight from NY to Texas. The plane made an emergency landing in Philadelphia…





Here’s more from NBC News:

A Southwest Airlines plane made an emergency landing Tuesday in Philadelphia for an unspecified “operational event,” airport officials said.

Southwest Flight 1380 was flying from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Dallas Love Field in Texas when it was diverted to Philadelphia International Airport, according to the airline. There were 143 passengers and five crew members aboard the Boeing 737 at the time.

“We are in the process of gathering more information,” Southwest said in a statement. “Safety is always our top priority at Southwest Airlines, and we are working diligently to support our customers and crews at this time.”

It was not immediately clear what led to the emergency landing. According to the Philadelphia airport, the flight was “diverted to PHL because of an operational event” and landed safely. Passengers could be seen exiting through a mobile stairway before being bussed to a terminal.

Reports on social media indicated that the plane depressurized mid-flight when a piece of the jet’s engine apparently flew into a window, shattering it. NBC News could not immediately verify the reports.

“This appears to be what aviation officials call an uncontained engine failure,” said NBC News aviation specialist Jay Blackman. “Engines are designed, when they fail, to fail inside the engine cowling. But in this case it looks like it pierced the cowling, and not only the cowling, but it pierced part of the fuselage.”

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop for the Philadelphia airport and told passengers to expect delays.

I’ll update more when I have it.

UPDATE:

I don’t think that someone died as was reported above. I can’t find anything to substantiate that claim – which is great news really.

UPDATE 2:

Ok now it is being widely reported that one person is dead:


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