One person dead after Southwest Airlines jet makes emergency landing in Philadelphia

A Southwest Airlines jet apparently blew an engine at 30,000 feet Tuesday and got hit by shrapnel that smashed a window and damaged the fuselage, killing a passenger and injuring seven others, authorities said.

The plane, a Boeing 737 bound from New York to Dallas with 149 people aboard, made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport just before noon EDT.

“I just remember holding my husband’s hand, and we just prayed and prayed and prayed,” said passenger Amanda Bourman, of New York. “And the thoughts that were going through my head of course were about my daughters, just wanting to see them again and give them a big hug so they wouldn’t grow up without parents.”

National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt said one person was killed. It was the first passenger fatality on a U.S. airline since 2009, he said.

Seven other people treated for minor injuries, Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel said. He said there was a fuel leak in one of the engines when firefighters arrived and that a small fire was quickly brought under control.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane landed after the crew reported damage to one of the engines, along with the fuselage and at least one window. The NTSB sent a team of investigators to Philadelphia.

Bourman said she was seated near the back and was asleep when she heard a loud noise and oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling. She said the plane was fairly quiet because everyone was wearing a mask, while some passengers were in tears and others shouted words of encouragement.

“Everybody was crying and upset,” she said. “You had a few passengers that were very strong and they kept yelling to people, you know, ‘It’s OK, we’re going to do this.’”

Passenger Marty Martinez did a brief Facebook Live posting while wearing an oxygen mask. He posted, “Something is wrong with our plane! It appears we are going down! Emergency landing!! Southwest flight from NYC to Dallas!!” After the plane landed, he posted photos of a damaged window near the engine.

Bourman said that everyone started yelling to brace for impact when the plane started to land. Everyone clapped and praised the pilot after he set the aircraft down.

Bourman said she saw emergency medical workers using a defibrillator to help a woman who was taken off the plane.

Tracking data from FlightAware.com indicates that Flight 1380 was heading west over New York’s southern tier at about 32,200 feet and traveling 500 mph when it abruptly turned toward Philadelphia.

Southwest has about 700 planes, all of them 737s, including more than 500 737-700s like the one involved in Tuesday’s emergency landing. It is the world’s largest operator of the 737. The Boeing 737 is the bestselling jetliner in the world and has a good safety record.

John Goglia, a former NTSB member, said investigators will take the Southwest engine apart to understand what happened and will look at maintenance records for the engine.

“There’s a ring around the engine that’s meant to contain the engine pieces when this happens,” Goglia said. “In this case, it didn’t. That’s going to be a big focal point for the NTSB — why didn’t [the ring] do its job?”

Goglia said the Boeing 737 is a safe plane but engine failures occur from time to time.

“We’re pushing the engines to produce as much power as possible,” he said. “We’re right on the edge. Sometimes they fail, and that’s why the containment ring is there.”

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. Shrapnel from the engine left a 5-by-16-inch hole just above the wing. Passenger oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling. Pilots landed the plane safely in Pensacola, Fla.

NTSB investigators said one of that engine’s fan blades broke off from the hub during the flight. The broken edge of the blade showed crack lines consistent with metal fatigue.

UPDATES:

12:40 p.m.: This article was updated with National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt reporting that one person died in the incident.

11:05 a.m.: This article was updated with additional details, including the number of passengers and crew members aboard the plane.

This article was originally published at 10:05 a.m.