PHILADELPHIA — One person is dead and several other passengers were injured after a Southwest plane made an emergency landing in Philadelphia Tuesday.
The deceased has been identified as Jennifer Riordan, a bank executive and mother of two from New Mexico. She was the wife of Michael Riordan, who served as the chief operating officer for the city of Albuquerque.
Flight 1380 was headed from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Dallas Love Field when an engine apparently exploded, causing a window to to break.
The pressurized aircraft fuselage was breached and the aircraft experienced rapid depressurization.
Witnesses said a woman was partially ‘sucked out’ of the broken window and had to be pulled back in.
The coroner said Riordan was killed after the engine blew and hurled shrapnel at the plane–saying she died of blunt impact trauma of the head, neck and torso, the AP reported.
Passengers pulled the victim back into the cabin, and attempted to plug the hole in the fuselage where the window used to be using jackets and other items. This was not successful and these items were blown out of the aircraft.
The pilots quickly brought the aircraft to a lower altitude and made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport at about 11:20 a.m.
The NTSB later confirmed a woman passed away at the hospital.
Woman Partially Sucked Out of Plane After Engine Explodes on Southwest Flight | UPDATE – https://t.co/zPIS2zrzQK pic.twitter.com/TaqqgCu9G9
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 17, 2018
This marked the first accident involving a U.S.-registered passenger airliner in more than nine years to involve at least one or more fatalities, the last accident being the February 2009 crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 which killed 50 people.
