Southwest Airlines jet with damaged engine makes emergency landing reminiscent of a similar event in August 2016 - One dead, many unanswered questions

John Damellos for The Greek Courier 

A Dallas-bound Southwest Airlines jet with 149 people aboard made an emergency landing at Philadelphia's airport Tuesday, as one woman was killed after partially drawn out of the plane and pulled back in by other passengers when the left engine exploded, leaving the jetliner with part of its engine covering ripped off, a shattered window and scores of scared people. The engine failure was reminiscent of a similar event on a Southwest Boeing 737-700 jet in August 2016 as it flew from New Orleans to Orlando, Fla. 

During that incident, "shrapnel from the engine had left a hole 12-by-40 centimeters just above the wing, but the pilots had managed to land the plane safely in Pensacola, Fla. Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board had said one of the engine's fan blades had broken off from the hub during the flight and the broken edge of the blade had showed crack lines consistent with metal fatigue." (CBC News)

Today, neither the airline nor the Federal Aviation Administration explained what went wrong. Journalists were told that it was too early to tell exactly what had happened, but that there was some damage to the plane's fuselage and wings.

Emergency personnel monitor the damaged engine of Southwest Airlines Flight 1380, which diverted to the Philadelphia International Airport this morning after the airline crew reported damage to one of the aircraft's engines, on a runway in Philadelphia, Penn., April 17, 2018.

According to local sources, the NTSB is launching a team to Philadelphia to investigate. The team is expected to arrive around 4:30 p.m. ET, and will begin an immediate inspection of the engine and fuselage. The engine will eventually be moved off site, so investigators can do a detailed tear-down of it.

According to National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) statistics, published in today's Globe and Mail, the fatality on the flight from New York was the first in a U.S. commercial aviation accident since 2009.

The Horror...

Witness accounts and local news media reports tell a horrifying story and it appears that we owe a lot of gratitude to the pilots who landed safely the plane after all. Apparently, while most of the people were asleep, "an engine on the plane’s left side blew, and it threw off shrapnel, shattering a window and causing cabin depressurization that nearly pulled out a female passenger". When the plane’s captain, Tammy Jo Shults talked to air traffic controllers in audio, she mentioned that they had "a part of the aircraft missing" and that they "we’re going to need to slow down a bit,”  and when asked by a controller if the jet was on fire, Shults responded it was not, but added, “they said there is a hole and someone went out.” Indeed, as the father of a passenger revealed to NBC’s affiliate in Philadelphia, “a woman was partially drawn out of the plane and pulled back in by other passengers." Unfortunately, the passenger succumbed to her wounds inside the plane. After the plane had landed, apart from the woman who was rushed to the hospital, seven other people were treated for minor injuries at the scene. 

A photo posted to the account of Marty Martinez, left, shows passengers preparing for the emergency landing. (Marty Martinez/Facebook)