The pilot did a MASTERFUL job and should be commended. The article is all about the people with very little other than initial observations about the aircraft and/or its maintenance. Nothing was said about engine hours, or what the most recent maintenance was and where it was done. Certainly metal fatigue occurs over time, but a tiny nick (something to small to catch in the casual walk-around pre-flight inspection) in the blade that happened anytime in the recent past could have caused this too. All of the questions and investigations need to be completed before laypeople make pronouncements on the aircraft or the airline.
Of much greater concern to me is the article says signs of metal fatigue were seen on the "operating engine". If this is the case it would be highly indicative of wrong doing by the airline; and I will be in line to chastise them for improprieties. But so little was said about this, it left me wondering about the accuracy of the report; maybe it was the engine that failed and had been operating when it exploded. NYT, Please follow up on that bit of information and clarify it.
7
This is the result of bad engineering practices by the aero engine and airplane manufacturers.
Arguments like "Seldom happens" or "It is the way planes are usually built" are stupid nonsense. Uncontained engine Failures DO HAPPEN, not frequently, but not so seldom that they can be simply ignored. In industry, people are told not to stay in line to the rotor discs, as failures DO happen, but curiously the airlines place unsuspecting passengers directly in line with the turbine discs, where an uncontained failure IS putting them at risk! I inspected the damages from an accident at a petroleum installation: a much smaller turbine used as a starter for a larger one suffered an Uncontained Failure and killed a worker that happened to be walking at the side of the device when it shed a blade. I would invite any SERIOUS turbine or airplane designer to look at the photos of that accident, to change their nearsighted attitude and start providing some means to intercept/stop the fragments before leaving the engine to damage the airplane or directly kill passengers. There are many "Ballistic containment" measures that CAN be installed with reasonable penalty on weight or cost, but continuing to ignore the tremendous damage that fragment can do is both insensible and unprofessional. Too bad the industry only responds to heavy economic fines and that a woman had to die. How many more uncontained failures need to happen before NTSB/FAA mandate such measures? Amclaussen, Prof. Engineer
9
Again, as in the flight into the Hudson, the skill and experience of a long-time veteran pilot played a vital role. Sometimes our nation seems enamored of youth, but when practice and experience matter most, fortunate are those who have such pilots as these to bring them home.
20
I commend Tammie Jo Shults for her heroic efforts in landing the plane safely and ensuring that there were no other fatalities. Her ability to remain calm, level-headed, and rational during a life-threatening situation made all the difference for her passengers and crew. Southwest needs to bestow some serious accolades on this woman.
I also commend the passengers who tried valiantly to save Jennifer Riordan while simultaneously trying to protect others on the aircraft. Their courage and bravery in what they thought was the face of imminent death is an example of our best selves at work.
Finally, I send my condolences to the family and friends of Ms. Riordan, who was taken from them in such a sudden and shocking way. May wonderful memories of her sustain them, and may she go in peace.
30
The safe landing of this aircraft doesn’t surprise me one bit. The navy produces some of the finest pilots in the world and this is being stated by an Air Force controller. Kudos to you Tammy Jo! If ever there’s a problem in the sky I want a veteran behind the yoke.
18
I am sorry for the loss of Ms. Riordan.
At the same time, I wonder why we are told the pilot was a woman. We're never told the pilot is a man. When that ceases to be noteworthy, women will have achieved equality.
5
I remember when a woman would by no means have been allowed to be a pilot. So I feel great to hear that the skill and experience of a woman--this woman and others--are there for us all now. So while I get your point, I am glad, too, that we've come this far. Thanks to the many women, and some men, too, who've pushed an erring culture this far in the right direction--keep it up!
26
My thoughts and prayers go out to Jennifer and her family.
5
Ms. Riordan, rest in peace.
A round of applause for Captain Shults!
How about looking at how the Boeing plane handles the problem. It seemed to be able to be put back on to the ground (hopefully as designed) safely.
6
Ah, yeah, a passenger should not be sucked out of a broken window to die. Big, big problem Southwest!
The pilots were fantastic!
Re-thinking my love of the window seat.
4
Firstly sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleges of the innocent passenger who lost her life in this tragic event. Prayers for her and her family.
And the highest kudos to the heroic pilot. Ultimate skill, determination, and duty.
Lastly I am really surprised to learn how many NYT readers are so skilled and trained in safety forensics and aeronautics that they can forgo a rigorous multiple cause investigation and analysis usually performed by subject matter experts and instead simply read a short NYT article and within minutes determine root cause, assign blame, and even determine which political party is to blame.
Amazing...
17
Jim , Obviously the fan blade separating caused the engine to explode . End result an explosive decompression , and yes a body can be sucked out , at least halfway .
1
So this is not the first time with Southwest Airlines, this happened in 2016 too. Clearly this means that Southwest did not learn their lesson in 2016 and as a result a life has been lost and more were at risk but for the skills of a poorly paid pilot. This is what happens when safety is sacrificed to the overriding profit motive. Southwest needs to deeply think about it. The root cause is not metal fatigue or any other technical reason. The root cause is poor maintenance and overused fleet. Also, they need to think about making their crew salaries more competitive.
9
I don't think you know much about airplanes or airlines. Uncontained engine failures are rare but they do occur. High speed rotating parts have considerable energy when released. It happened in Chicago last year to an American Airlines flight. A united Airlines plane crashed in Sioux city about 20 years ago from the same cause. You might be interested to learn that SouthWest pilots are the most highly paid of the major airlines for the type of planes they fly. You could have easily looked this up before you posted. I guess $200,000 plus a year is chump change in Connecticut but not out here. The FAA mandates the inspection intervals for all planes, engines and related systems.
17
The inspection and maintenance requirements are supposed to *prevent* uncontained engine failures.
Very inappropriate speculation, innuendo and accusations. Leave it to the professionals to investigate and determine real root cause. I’m replying as nicely as I can.
6
Not to nitpick but the engine did not explode. Bombs explode. Fuel-air mixtures explode. Metal fatigue in a high-stress turbine blade is not an explosion. Catastrophic disassembly maybe.
And while I’m at it a small hole in a plane will not suck a person through it. If a one square inch hole opens up and you cover it with your hand you will end up with frostbite but that’s it. There less than seven pound of air pressure force on your hand in that case when at altitude. When an entire window opens that seven pounds per square inch adds up and now you’ve got a problem.
9
There is a recording on NPR, of the pilot, Tammy Jo Shultz's, conversation with Air Traffic Control, as she declares and emergency and brings the jet in. That is one cool & professional pilot. The passengers were in good hands in a very bad situation. Hats off the the Captain and her crew.
28
Southwest has a business model that uses aging and obsolete aircraft as its fleet. Apparently their bean counters determined it's cheaper to do repairs according to FAA schedules and guidelines than it is to fly new planes. This is the consequence. I already consigned the come-on emails from Southwest to the spam folder and now I will never, ever fly on them again. Even if they're giving seats away.
4
B-727's are still being produced so they are hardly obsolete. Every airline must follow FAA inspection and repair guidelines regardless of the age of the plane.
3
You meant "737's" right? Because 727's haven't been produced in three decades.
4
B727 are retired 20 years ago.
B737 still produced .
1
Without taking anything away from Capt. Shults, the public should understand and take comfort that the recurrency training which all commercial pilots regularly undertake is focused exclusively on dealing with emergencies, e.g., loss of an engine, loss of instrumentation, systems failure, etc. The purpose of this training is to prepare the pilot to automatically fall into a familiar paradigm. There can be no "thinking about what you should be thinking about." Checklists covering every possible eventuality are readily available, and the crew falls into a practiced and re-practiced routine.
11
Great flying. Hats off to the pilot and crew for landing this damaged bird and getting so many people on the ground safely. Well done.
15
First off, Wow! What a story so many people doing everything right when failure meant an much bigger catastrophic.
Secondly, what a horrible way to die. I truly feel for that women and her family. While no reasonable passenger could possibly predicted this....would have wearing your seat belt have prevented this. I can tell you I am usually unbuckled unless the sign in on saying I must buckle up.
Thirdly, I find it interesting that so many people seem to be taking so much pride in the fact a women pilot is one if the main heroes of this event. She is unequivocally a hero. That is obvious. But I don't see why the pilot's gender matters one way or another. Maybe it is because I grew up around people who never assigned artificial limits to the people around them based on gender. Physicality aside, my Dad is a giant of a man, my parents have always been equals.
Lastly, seriously this is a crazy thing to go through.
4
Because women typically do not get enough credit for their everyday heroism; this act of heroism was too big to ignore. That's why.
10
My sympathies to the family of Ms. Riordan and gratitude to those who tried to save her life and also to that cool headed pilot and crew. I do wonder where she was sitting--maybe first class from the picture on this article. Recently, I read an article saying the safest place to sit in a plane is behind the wing and keeping that seat belt on is important.
5
There is no first class on Southwest aircraft. It is open seating.
The damaged window was aft of the wing. Also, Southwest does not have first class seating.
7
No first class on Southwest flights!
6
Before placing blame, it might be worthwhile to examine the safety records of foreign airlines, many of which are subsidized by their governments, to see if shaving pennies to provide the lowest fares really does inpact safety.
2
themoi, when I read your comment, I re-read the article to see what I'd missed. I didn't find anything about the pilot except the link to another article, which simply said "Read more about Tammie Jo Shults, the veteran Navy pilot who landed the plane." - not much gender-condescension in that statement.
I looked at the other article to see if it was something there. While it did have statements like "nerves of steel" & "awesome", there wasn't anything like "gee a chick did it?" or "who let the girls in the cockpits?". I found nothing, even in that related article, that would justify anyone being "shocked and appalled", or justify reactions like "gasp!", or "get used to it". There were some statements about her being one of the early female fighter pilots - they were positive, not condescending or expressing surprise that she could do such.
I would have expected similar positive comments about any pilot who lands a damaged plane smoothly and saves many lives; whether male, female, transgender, short, tall, left-handed, right-handed, whatever. Indeed, if it said nothing about the pilot, I would have been a bit surprised.
Do we perhaps have too big a chip on our shoulder, a predetermined reaction that whenever anyone mentions 'female pilot' it must be an insult and has to be argued against?
I'm surprised too that this was an editor's pick, the only one out of 200+; it responds to something that wasn't in the article, and responds quite confrontationally at that.
5
My beef was that it was automatically assumed the pilot was a "he" and appeared in print as such before it was found the pilot was a "she". Then the comments about how cool and calm she was over the radio. Pleez. The other mantra of piloting is "Fly the plane"--no matter what conditions you're in, who on the plane is screaming in your ear, throwing up, or what other kind of panic is going on. She is a trained professional and showed it. Don't automatically assume all pilots are men or that all women will panic in emergency situations. That is sexism at its worst.
1
As Carey Lohrenz, the first female F-14 Tomcat pilot, says when it comes to whether a pilot is male or female..."The aircraft doesn't know the difference."
17
Please identify the man who blocked
the opening in the plane with his body.
Wow.
25
Tragic accident. Even the smaller holes can suck humans at such high altitudes. So sad. Condolences to the family.
2
Not true. A tiny hole may draw you to it but never suck you out. The pressure differential is not that great.
5
When I read your comment, I re-read the article to see what I'd missed. I didn't find anything about the pilot except the link to another article, which simply said "Read more about Tammie Jo Shults, the veteran Navy pilot who landed the plane." - not much gender-condescension in that statement.
I looked at the other article to see if it was something there. While it did have statements like "nerves of steel" & "awesome", there wasn't anything like "gee a chick did it?" or "who let the girls in the cockpits?". I found nothing, even in that related article, that would justify anyone being "shocked and appalled", or justify reactions like "gasp!", or "get used to it". There were some statements about her being one of the early female fighter pilots - they were positive, not condescending or expressing surprise that she could do such.
I would have expected similar positive comments about any pilot who lands a damaged plane smoothly and saves many lives; whether male, female, transgender, short, tall, left-handed, right-handed, whatever. Indeed, if it said nothing about the pilot, I would have been a bit surprised.
Do we perhaps have too big a chip on our shoulder, a predetermined reaction that whenever anyone mentions 'female pilot' it must be an insult and has to be argued against?
I'm surprised too that this was an editor's pick, the only one out of 200+; it responds to something that wasn't in the article, and responds quite confrontationally at that.
3
On NPR: the pilot talking to the air traffic control. She sounded cool as the underside of a pillow. I'd fly on her airplane any time.
7
Had the FAA not changed the blade out test for jet engines about 18 years ago, this fatality would have been prevented.
5
That must mean it is George Bush's fault! The FAA is quite strict in its requirements but I can not comment on the specifics of this topic.
1
all I know is every year people die in plane crashes. I think we need to ban planes.
2 weeks ago, members of a junior hockey team were killed in a school bus. that same week a school bus killed kids in England and another school bus injured kids in long island. we also need to ban school buses.
3
Fan blades of aircraft engine are made of strong titanium alloy. Possible breakage reason is fatigue and bird strike. Sometimes migrating birds can be seen such high altitudes.
2
We read about such airline accidents with fear, because we have no control over our destiny if an airplane goes down. Yet airline travel is SO much safer than highway driving (as amply proven by statistics), where we have the illusion of control, yet are subject to the errors of the hundreds/thousands of our fellow humans driving around us...some of whom nowadays may be sleep-deprived, drunk or high on drugs, or texting/tweeting rather than paying attention to the 2-3 thousand pound missiles they are "guiding". For long distances, I nowadays prefer air travel anytime...even with the TSA hassles.
8
The FAA has rolled back regulations since Trump took office. On Sunday night, 60 Minutes did a feature on one of the bargain airlines that has been plagued with safety incidents. No surprise, the FAA official interviewed, was not forthcoming, and avoided answering direct questions regarding how those roll-backs are impacting safety. Afraid this incident will not be the last.
Props to Captain Tammy Jo Shults for landing that plane safely, and condolences to family of the deceased passenger.
10
Wow - it is Trump's fault. Now that is a first. Kindly cite the specific safety regulations that the FAA has rolled back. You won't find any.
8
I have checked and I do not find any evidence that safety at the FAA has been rolled back yet. However, there is a requirement to remove rules, although the article I read said that there was scope for this without affecting safety. https://www.flyingmag.com/trump-executive-order-on-regulations-means-pot...
Having noted this, Trump’s penchant for having the foxes rule the hen-house will lead to reduced safety. The effect on the climate is probably the most major one.
While the heroic deeds and steely calm of the pilot are remarkable, the sad and unknown truth is that, in airliner inventory, a plane never fully depreciates unless it explodes or goes into the water. Therefore, planes are cobbled together forever. It is clear that the 737 class is very aged and should be replaced.
7
That's not true at all. You can see that this is a fairly modern plane because it has fan-jet engines, rather than simple jets. There are still some 737's with the old engines flying, but they're rare. Boeing makes hundreds of new ones every year and sells them all over the planet. The 737 is by far the most successful commercial aircraft ever designed.
1
The 737 was never sold with simple turbojets. Even the later model 707's had fanjets as did the 727 of the 80's. You are correct that the 727 is a very reliable and currently manufactured jet so hardly obsolete.
3
Bill, Boeing stopped producing the 727 a long time ago. However, they recently delivered their 10,000th 737.
The early 707s had turbojet engines. The fan jets came later.
Good article regarding the FAA's contradictory mission, to " regulate and promote" civil aviation. To this day it is a confusing directive to treat airlines like customers. Quote from article, "Southwest inspector Bobby Boutris tells FRONTLINE that despite the public name change, the most recent FAA manual he received still directs him to treat the airlines as "customers" and make sure that he meets customer service expectations. Boutris believes the policy still requires clarification. "As an inspector," he says, "I'm still confused." You can find the article here, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/flyingcheap/safety/cosy.html
6
Heroism was also demonstrated by a passenger, retired school nurse, Peggy Phillips, who administered CPR to the victim, Ms. Riordan.
17
Time to end outsourcing of major maintenance?
12
Outstanding, but give it time I'm sure the republicans are trying to repeal pesky regulations that govern how often the engines on commercial planes need to be inspected.
20
This was an absolute tragedy and could’ve definitely been avoided with proper maintenance. And I find it so ironic that just recently 60 minutes ran a story on exactly this topic of safety and maintenance but with Allegiant instead. Something needs to be done and the FAA needs to get tough on all of them.
17
60 minutes is hardly a good source. Perhaps you should read some NTSB reports and recommendations.
1
I would like to know how much this hero pilot, and she is one, makes a year.
8
I read the follow up article about the pilot, and there was no place to comment there. Look at the picture at the top of that article. It shows the pilot as a MAN. I am appalled that the Times would allow this to happen - it is as if the Times itself cannot fully acknowledge that the hero of the day is really a heroine. This is the kind of insidious bias that permeates all of our institutions, even the media, and that fosters continuing discrimination in our culture.
Contrast this with the Washington Post article that headlines her in a different way, and that shows her in her jumpsuit. And also contrast this with the headlines that the Times gave Scully, who landed his plane in the Hudson River a few years ago.
7
Rene, the picture states that she is standing to the right in the picture where you can read her name tag on her jumpsuit. Looks like a cell phone picture taken immediately after.
11
And the hero is.....drum roll please..... a WOMAN pilot who was refused entry into the Air Force and was taken into the Navy instead and learned how to land on aircraft carriers. She landed the plane safety saving many lives.
27
I'm reminded of a similar uncontained engine failure on a DC-10, United Airlines Flight 232, on July 19, 1989. The engine mounted in the tail suffered a catastrophic failure, and the debris disabled all the hydraulic control systems. With the loss of control, the crew could steer the plane only by varying the thrust of the other engines. They managed to reach the Sioux City, Iowa airport, where they crash landed. In the crash and subsequent fire 111 died, but 185 survived.
8
There is a spellbinding book about this flight and crash, by Laurence Gonzales.
I remember that very well. The cause of the UA 232 crash was a microscopic fracture in a disc fan in the rear engine and grew over time and wasn't visible to the human eye. That lead to changes to utilize electronic scanning of engine parts.
2
CPR and a defibrillator? I thought that was specifically for cardiac arrest?
2
You're correct about that. Cardiac arrest is the ultimate end-point of massive blood loss/severe brain injury/other severe traumatic injuries like those Ms. Riordan is likely to have tragically sustained.
4
Exactly. A person who has been critically injured, sustained massive bodily trauma, and/or lost a significant amount of blood, can and will suffer cardiac arrest and require CPR. They may not necessarily have dibrillated her, but had the automatic defibrillator attached to her so they could see her heart rhythm.
4
We flight attendants are trained to immediately start CPR on an unresponsive/non-breathing person. The defibrillator will be used to monitor the heart continuously should cardiac arrest begin. Think about it, we’re not doctors so there’s no way for us to know if cardiac arrest has happened or not.
4
..."About two minutes before the plane landed, passengers got cellphone reception, so he called his wife and told her they were about to make an emergency landing."...
Did anyone wonder, if it is true that cell phones interfere with flight safety, that this was probably the worst thing to do just as the plane begins its approach to the runway?
7
Cell phones don't interfere with flight safety. If they really did, they wouldn't count on everyone to keep them in Airplane Mode, they would confiscate them and lock them in an iron safe during flight.
14
Hans Morefield you are correct. I've flown on overseas flights that originated at O'Hare and left my cellphone turned on the whole way. Guess what? No plane crash.
3
Yes, phones do interfere with flight safety. In a chaotic situation they could interfere with passenger's ability to hear and follow directions. I'd be happy to fly on the pilot's plane, but apparently likely with fellow passengers that put themselves and their compositions to loved ones about how they are going to --NOT it turns out--die, due to pilot's skills and training, before what needs to be attended to on the plane during an emergency. Could have saved a lot of keystrokes by waiting 'till on the ground safely and debriefed.
Kudos to the woman pilot who was refused into the Air Force Academy and later went into the Navy instead and learned how to land planes on aircraft carriers. It's a good thing the Navy recognized talent when they saw it as she saved many lives this week.
14
While the outstanding performance of the pilot(s) is rightly praised, the root cause of the accident may very well be the fact that Southwest outsources most of its (MRO) Heavy Airframe and Engine Maintenance, something called "D" checks to a little-known company called Aeroman in San Salvador. The quality of the work done there has come into question more than once as reported by NPR: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113942431.
You can see that Southwest uses Aeroman extensively in this link:
http://www.aeroman.com.sv/?page_id=1185&lang=en
Much of the time the mechanics use is simply attempting to translate the English in the Boeing repair documents into Spanish. Of course, nothing gets lost in translation.
15
30 years ago all maintenance was in-house. With Airlines scraping for more profits, most majors have relied on outside vendors to do all flight repairs for years. Preventive fan blade failure inspection requires more money than the Airlines are willing to pay. The cost of a few lives is cheaper than the fix.
17
It's not just airlines "scraping for profits." Historically it's a pretty unprofitable industry.
It's customers wanting rock-bottom fares that are a fraction of what they used to be, in inflation-adjusted dollars, so they can fly the kiddies to Disney or take the bachelorettes to Vegas or visit Meemaw and Peepaw for the same cost as a Greyhound bus.
You get what you pay for.
7
Perhaps we should wait for the proper analysis of the failure before casting our indictments and cultivating our narratives against the usual convenient suspects.
4
And you get your facts from where??
After this tragedy, and the 2016 episode, it's clear how SW Airlines continues to offer low air fares: it skips maintenance or uses planes past their sell-by date, or both! I've flow SW twice in the past year. I'll have to rethink my plans for this year.
5
I've been flying SW for 30 years and consider them head and shoulders above the competition in just about every respect.
Unless the NTSB investigation points to clear negligence from SW, I will continue to fly with them, with pride. I would also note that they are the airline who hired this pilot.
5
All kudos to the (unnamed) Man With His Back To The Window.
Now we are talking hero. Many may be heroes who do their job well under duress. But how did this One ever decide it was his job to stay at the window like that for the sake of the others and at what expense to himself?
The beauty of his inspired action brings tears of amazement and joy in what may seem otherwise a dark day.The world doesnt know your name and if it did, it would be only your given, so let me call you Compassionate Heart!
87
The airline maintenance in this country is a criminal disgrace. According to a Vanity Fair article we have been offshoring it to cheaper venues like el Salvador and China- far away from the snooping eyes of the FAA.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/11/airplane-maintenance-disturbing-...
28
Like many passengers, as I traveI I think of the enormous, frightening, shaking and shuddering of these airplanes and their metal underpinnings.
2
This current incident comes at the heels of remarkably similar occurrence yet again involving South West, quite recently.
Preliminary investigation of the earlier one determined that the fracture in the blade initiated from the fan blade dovetail.
This condition, if not detected and corrected, could lead to fan blade failure, possibly resulting in uncontained forward release of debris, with consequent damage to the engine and the aeroplane.
To address this potential unsafe condition, CFM International issued, providing inspection instructions.
Merely few weeks back European Aviation Safety Agency for a one-time inspection of certain CFM56-7 blades, involving an ultrasonic inspection of each one affected, within nine months. They say:
An occurrence was reported of fan blade failure on a CFM56-7B engine. The released fan blade was initially contained by the engine case, but there was subsequent uncontained forward release of debris and separation of the inlet cowl.
9
These airlines get away with murder - literally as the loss of this poor woman shows. They nickel and dime customers to death, pack us in like cattle, have less and less customer service, and cut corners on safety inspections to continue lining executives' pockets. I hope this family sues the heck out of Southwest Airlines.
18
We as the passengers are complicit in this- like cheaper food we demand cheaper airline fares, no matter the result. We accept horrible working conditions in slaughter houses and pesticide use and the poor maintenance of airlines- but scream bloody murder when our steak or airline costs go up. The airlines are businesses- not government services- they give us exactly what we want.
7
Clearly she does not understand the first thing about the economics of operating an airline, or have any perspective on the historic cost of airline tickets compared to today's low fares. If there's one thing I can't stand it's an ignorant consumer lashing out in knee-jerk fashion at "big business."
Feel free to hop a bus next time, or drive.
5
I did not consent to this and certainly didn't "demand" this. The corporation owns the airplane and is responsible for maintaining it. The passengers do not and are not.
2
I’m puzzled by this paragraph: “The crew initially reported an engine fire, Mr. Sumwalt said. They later clarified that there was no fire, but said that the plane was operating with a single engine — and that parts of it were missing.” It seems to say that parts of the *remaining* engine were missing—is that correct? I thought the engine problems were exclusively with the one that broke apart and failed, not with the one that continued to operate.
8
I would understand the sentence to say that parts of the airplane were missing as indeed there were.
1
Go Navy.
14
Navy pilots are far more skilled.......they have to land on moving aircraft carriers with 300 feet of runway, compared to 2,300 feet of land runway. She was rejected by the Air Force and joined the US Navy instead, and was the first female F18 pilot. Southwest is lucky to have her. The loss of life is a tragedy, but it could have been a catastrophe. Go Navy indeed!
11
Wow what a way to go getting sucked out a plane window. Southwest and Boeing gonna pay!!
Not if it was determined it was not due to negligence.
1
I believe you wanted to say that the engine manufacturer and/or the party doing the necessary maintenance are going to pay. Boeing seems to be in the clear.
1
I want to know if the poor passenger who was "suck out" had her seatbelt fastened.
If so, those belts need upgrading STAT. If not, let this be a lesson to those complacent in the air.
Kudos to Captain Shults for her skill and leadership. I hope she gets the acclaim and stardom that "Sully" has enjoyed since his feats.
20
Others have mentioned this but the difference in response to a critical failure in an airplane and to a mass shooting in our country is stark and unacceptable. With a life threatening airplane incident, all factors are examined in great detail by recognized apolitical experts. Industry wide changes are recommended as soon as the facts are clear and adequately studied.
In contrast, the response to gun violence, an annual public health crisis that kills tens of thousands every year, reflects a one sided political view. Time after time it totally absolves an industry literally based on blood money.
That's not to say a wholly partisan counter-reaction is appropriate. Instead, we need scientific study and a nonpartisan public health approach that reduces gun violence to an acceptable level.
The second amendment doesn't outweigh everyone's more fundamental right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
26
Excellent point. We 'regulate' so many things in this world...airplanes and how/when/where they are flown.....cars and how and by whom they may be operated.... boats....physicians....banks.... restaurants that serve alcohol.... cosmetic businesses that offer botox, etc. We regulate everything is seems, BUT weapons....items that are designed expressly to maim and kill. It's simply mind-boggling, which is why the rest of the world just shakes its head when considering the gun-culture of the US of A.
13
Well, it does seem that someone "got the regulators off the airline's back" when it became acceptable to outsource critical maintenance procedures to San Salvador". Criminal.
3
Republicans:
This is why we need regulations-to protect people.
The fact that there was a similar accident in 2016 with the same airline tells me that they were allowed to get away with this kind of negligence. Were aviation safety regulations relaxed? If so, why?
18
More regulations, says who? Our motto is: Good thing the sky is big.
As the parent of two Southwest flight crew employees, one a flight attendant and the other a pilot, this is heart wrenching. Both of these have many years (decades) of experience and have always taken their jobs extremely seriously. Many of the employees of Southwest are extremely experienced as is the pilot of Flight 1380 yesterday.
Southwest is devastated today, as are many Americans and people across the world.
A tragic incident like this, the loss and grief for the family is unimaginable.
I am certain when CEO Gary Kelly put out his statement yesterday it was with deepest sympathy and sincerity. And there will be an investigation that Southwest will uphold in any way they can.
A very very sad day, indeed.
14
Without seeming crass I should think that his deepest sympathies rest with the company. I am sure he will direct attention to preventing this horrific accident from recurring.
While all commercial pilots are trained on engine out procedures and the 737 is capable of landing safely on one engine, its worth mentioning that the pilot received her training in the military. In fact she was among the first women to fly high performance aircraft when finally given the opportunity. Rising to that flight status level within the Navy is no easy chore and only the best qualified pilots make it. We need more like her.
32
This is the FIRST Southwest fatality in 51 years of flying. OK there's a lot of good luck in there, but a lot of competence too. No one who knew this thought it could last forever.
Notice that is was only ONE death, not all passengers. They had an extraordinarily competent pilot!
So sad for Ms. Riordan and her family!
13
This is NOT the first Southwest Airlines fatality.
Flight 1248 overshot the runway at Midway in December 2005, drove into vehicular traffic, and killed a 6 year old boy.
I am concerned about the cut rate third world maintenance being conducted on this airline’s engines.
Time to bring those jobs back to the US, stat.
3
Last night I dreamt that an airliner's engine exploded in mid air, causing the plane to crash and kill all passengers and crew. I sat on top of the smouldering wreckage, holding my boarding pass for a different flight, and debated whether or not to take my flight to my destination. Undecided, I woke, then read this article about yesterday's engine explosion, which I had not known about before. My dream symbolized my workaholism, which is causing my "work engine" to explode and my "airplane self" to crash enroute to achieving my work goals, due to my overwork, fatigue, and poor self maintenance. I am interested to see what caused the Southwest engine to explode, and whether or not it was likewise due to overwork, metal fatigue, and poor maintenance. Sometimes it seems that waking reality is a meaningful dream in which personal information processes acausally correlate with world information processes. Other times, a cigar is just a cigar, and what seems to be a correlation is merely one projecting oneself onto the word. In other words, both persons and airplane engines may be overworked at the same time, with no meaning to this other than perhaps a lesson that it is bad to overwork.
2
The pilot is an extraordinary hero! While I was also upset that she was not hailed as such in this article, she has her own story on the front page below this one! Nerves of Steel, indeed!
https://nyti.ms/2voZPrb
6
I'd like more info on the incredibly brave passengers who tried to save that poor woman, actually hauling her back onboard even though it was too late for her in the end.
21
Indeed! When I read about the man who tried to block the window with his own body, I (selfishly?) thought '...is he insane? Why would he not think he too might be sucked out next?'
4
He probably knew that was a risk. But disaster was guaranteed if someone didn't at least try.
He was as brave as firemen who run into burning buildings.
1
Who is the heroic passenger who tried to block the smashed window with his own body? For 20 minutes!! He also deserves accolades for his bravery.
22
Yes. He should be a CNN Hero this year, and should be give. Lifetime free flying pass for all the lives he saved.
2
This was the first incident resulting in a passenger fatality in Southwest's history, I am surprised this was not mentioned in the story.
5
It horrific accidents that nudge companies' motivations away from cost-cutting to advancing safety measures. Witness how long airlines fought reinforcing cockpit doors- 911 changed that.
We now have a chief executive who, having already taken credit for the near-sterling safety record of the U.S. airline industry's PAST FIVE+ YEARS, would do away with FAA, EPA, FDA, SEC, FBI if he could.
Thank GOD we have the likes of Tammie Jo Schults on the ground (and in the air)
5
Why thank god? I thank rational, critical thinkers -- and experts.
1
As the saying goes, if it makes the news then it's probably not something you should worry about. People should be more concerned about what's not in the news, such as, the thousands of preventable deaths on the road.
4
"A similar episode occurred in August 2016 when a Southwest Airlines flight headed to Orlando, Fla., made an emergency landing in Pensacola, Fla., because of engine failure."
2 major incidents in less than 2 years requires an immediate federal investigation into Southwest and their safety standards (or lack thereof).
6
In addition to possible maintenance failure, seems like there could be a design failure as well. The engine nacelle is supposed to be designed to contain a rotor failure (thrown fan blade). This one clearly did not.
5
Sure enough, one of the first things the CEO of the quasi-discount Southwest Airlines said was “safety is our top priority”.
No, your bottom line and stockholders and business model are your top priority. Safety is in the equation, of course, or you wouldn’t have any passengers. But it is certainly not your “top priority”.
9
Flying has its risks. The pilots, thank God, were the best and saved the lives of the rest of the passengers
2
I listened to the tape of Captain Shults bringing the plane in to Philadelphia. She sounds so calm, as if she had encountered nothing more difficult than a little light traffic on her way to work. ' nerves of steel' is absolutely correct. But then, no one should really be surprised since she was a Navy fighter pilot.
7
"Since taking office I have been very strict on Commercial Aviation. Good news - it was just reported that there were Zero deaths in 2017, the best and safest year on record!" - Donald Trump, January 2, 2018
Don’t worry, he’ll come out swinging and blame someone for this: Obama, Hillary, Comey, Mueller, the failing NY Times, the lying media, the Southwest pilot, perhaps even the woman who got sucked out of the plane. It’ll be “SAD!”, but not for the reasons the rest of us think it is.
I cannot believe how many commenters have rushed to judgment before we know much about the accident, with their raft of clichés. Corporate greed, check. Incompetent maintenance south of the border, check. Pilot not mentioned, check (rather, there's a whole separate article on her). GOP, check. Deregulation, check. President Trump and Koch brothers, I'm still looking.
7
Doing everything right in stressful situations is the highest priority, and by all accounts the pilot did everything perfectly. Whether a pilot communicates clearly and calmly or clearly with a sense of urgency is probably not the defining litmus test the general public seems to make it out to be.
3
I'd like to have a look at the log for the maintenance and repairs of the engines on this plane!
10
Flying isn't fun anymore, if's a hassle and it's always scary, safety statistics notwithstanding. I really wish that years ago, we focused our energy on building a world-class rail system on par with Europe and Japan. Sure we're a big country and air travel makes more sense over long distances, but in the northeast and mid-Atlantic, rail would make far more sense than air travel, all things considered, especially convenience and efficiency.
41
I read this a lot and don't get it. After childhood when was flying ever fun?
1
Unfortunately our infrastructure (think derailments) isn’t there.
[Also think urban blight and objects being thrown at trains, and no responsibility taken by parents and communities.]
1
I grant flying is a hassle and may not be fun, for you. I know only one person who's said to me they're afraid when they fly, though.
1
Read the book Black Box Thinking to get a sense of how aviation and the airlines deals with accidents (thoroughly and painstakingly). SWA has been flying since 1974 - countless millions of miles and countless millions of travelers. The FIRST fatality. I fly them all the time and am completely confident and comfortable with a corporate culture that produces those spectacular kind of results.
23
NOT the first fatality.
Southwest 1248 overshot the runway at Midway in December 2005, entered vehicular traffic, and killed a 6 year old boy.
1
Aircraft engines are like any other mechanical piece of equipment. They can be subject to metal fatigue and a myriad of other problems. This tragic incident happened with an aircraft that does short to medium haul flights. The added stress of many take offs and and landings means that more maintenance is required more frequently to keep the aircraft flying in safety.
I'll let the NTSB and GE, the engine's manufacturer, come to the conclusion of just what has to be done to prevent this. There are 6700 aircraft around the world flying with this engine. A solution to any problems must be found and quickly.
22
I fly Southwest often. Is an "enhanced inspection procedure" enough? If two planes showed weakness in the same area of the engine, shouldn't that whole area be reinforced or engineered to reflect a new stronger hub. I bet a lot of customers are not going to sit anywhere near the engines until the company has fixed this problem.
7
Thoughts and prays. But let not look at reason for accidents. Works for gun safety right?
19
Horrifying freak accident. All I can say is that hopefully Southwest refines its inspections of engines to catch whatever caused this tragedy. Also hope the deceased's family gets a large amount from Southwest in damages to help assuage the pain.
9
My thoughts and prayers for Ms. Riordon and her family. There but for the grace of God.
But, seriously, what gives with not mentioning the pilot's name in the article. And, if you want to suggest, that the fact that the pilot was a woman doesn't add to the newsworthiness of the fact, you're crazy.
27
Like many readers who have commented, feelings are my first response under pressure. Our type can buzz around in single engine props, but wouldn't have made it onto the flight deck of a commercial airliner. That we are amazed at flight crews responding coolly under the pressure of losing an engine belies our limited empathy. Dad is a retired commercial airline pilot. When young, I expressed amazement at crews responding in appropriate fashion to emergencies. He would ask, "What else were they going to do?"
9
So the plane was 18 years old and had been through 40,000 flight cycles (takeoff and landing), 10,000 of them since its last "overhaul." The fan blade showed signs of metal fatigue. A similar incident occurred on a Southwest flight in 2016 but did not cause a fatality. If two such aged engines have now exploded, isn't it time Southwest and the NTSB stopped allowing such geriatric pieces of equipment to carry passengers? I've long flown Southwest and frequently thought "this airline has never lost a passenger." They can no longer make that claim, and I will remember that every time I make flight reservations.
21
Will you remember to buy a ticket on the airline with the newest aircraft or will you consider price and convenience paramount? New airplanes are expensive, airlines are under pressure to keep costs down because passengers want the lowest airfare. I complain about how uncomfortable seats are today in comparison to what they were like in 1966 when I flew a Pan Am DC-8 to Lisbon and back from New York. However, my last flight was to Mexico City on a 737 because the price was excellent.
Isn't the ballistic reinforcement in the cowling spec'd to contain a lost blade? It certainly seems like it should be, after two of these incidents just with Southwest. Or alternately, was this avoidable by proper inspections that weren't done?
6
The protection is a ring of Kevlar around the first stage fan and cowling. The newer engines like the RR Trent, utilize titanium to protect against a "blade out" event.
But that's really not the issue. The issue is whether or not that engine was looked in a timely manner, how thoroughly it was looked at, and how effective any repairs were done, if needed.
The story, when it comes out, will not be pretty.
4
I wonder if the deceased passenger was wearing her seat belt.
Reducing the chances of being sucked into a breach in an aircraft's fuselage is not one of the primary reasons to keep your seat belt on at all times, but doing so is a good idea.
16
I was wondering that too. I don't know if the seat belt is designed to handle that type of pressure for that long of a period of time, either, though. It's possible that she had it on and it failed too.
5
US Airliners also typically have passenger seats designed for revenue maximization, not primarily for safety and with this design, the standard seatbelt combined with a seat design that isn't focused on passenger safety often means a seatbelt that is far less functional relative to body movements and passenger safety during turbulence.
Most US short haul airliners often have deteriorated seating with compressed cushions, broken armrests and other defects such as tray tables that don't stay locked down, etc. It's time for an overhaul of airliner seat design relative to passenger safety and comfort, not just the airline passenger seat revenue. Same for the overhead bins and the drop down slamming doors that often have items fall out onto passenger's and flight attendant's heads.
Like extra inspections and limitations on total flight cycles for aging planes, redesigning and overhauling airliner interiors for passenger and crew safety is far overdue.
New seats that are more likely to hold the passengers in place during turbulence with new designs of seatbelts including, perhaps, chest or harness designs needs to happen.
It's time for major innovation in passenger travel and transport in the air and on the ground. Like the NYC Subways, our current passenger travel "system" and "infrastructure" is aging and decrepit and getting worse by the month while the demand and travel volume is expanding.
1
Southwest has a remarkable safety record. I am sure the entire company is saddened by the tragic loss of even one life.
My heart goes out to Ms. Riordan's husband and children, her co-workers, family, and friends. Who gets on a plane and worries about getting sucked out of the window. Just a horrible thought that other passengers had to witness or experience.
What concerns me most is what company rebuilt the engine. Usually, the company doing the periodic maintenance on the plane is not the company that specializes in taking apart and rebuilding the engines. Planes are hard to move but engines can be trucked across the border and worked on in Mexico.
Every one of the fan blades is supposed to be x-rayed to spot even microscopic cracks and weak points. Multiple mechanics with government-issued licenses must sign off on every single step. Was cost-cutting involved by Southwest or the maintenance company? Was the engine maintenance company operating in a low wage foreign country?
I agree that the FAA needs to go back to doing enforcement and not being an advisory partner to the airlines. That FAA bureaucrat that 60 Minutes interviewed last Sunday did not give me much confidence that his agency was doing a good job overseeing airline safety. No one who knows anything about airplanes will even get on an Allegiant Airlines flight, yet they are still in business and flying.
17
My friend who once dated an airline mechanic years ago told her she wouldn’t fly if she knew what he knew. So many cost- cutting policies across the board even though passengers are paying more fees.
It’s troubling corporations like giant financial companies don’t invest in better internet security because the loss to them is minimal compared to its customers.
It’s this kind of thinking that puts safety last. And as more regulations are being burned by this president, I fear it will get worse.
17
As a retired Southwest Employee, I can tell you they are all hurting at the loss of Ms.Roidan. Not only do we treat each other like family, we also feel that way about each and every passenger. YES, we have female pilots, they are awesome! All my Southwest Airlines FB family is united , all the retirees, and the ground and flight crews, in supporting the passengers, each other and everyone involved. better together!
34
That's so scary. I remember as a kid my mom was watching one of those true story TV movies about a plane that lost its roof during the flight. It's still in my mind some 30 years later. I can't recall the real life flight it was based on maybe Hawaii?
Even though it was a movie the fact that it was a true story made it stick in my mind and frighten me. Anyway that poor woman and her family. Southwest is usually a good airline, I hope they aren't cutting corners on maintenance due to competition from lower priced airlines.
7
Here we go, uninformed opinions and kudos to a pilot for what they're paid to do.
5
What--people who do their job well deserve no thanks and gratitude? What type of a callous attitude is that?
3
As always, a lot of comments from "Monday morning quarterbacks" and amateur aerospace engineers.
12
The Wall Street Journal has published an account of the incident and a profile of the pilot, Tammie Jo Shultz, a truly exceptional and estimable woman. The NYT should update its article to properly credit her. In the article she is quoted as saying that flying gives her the opportunity "to witness for Christ on almost every flight."
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-right-stuff-at-southwest-airlines-15240...
12
This article says a turbine blade was missing from the operating engine? If so an even larger catastrophe was narrowly escaped.
6
So the Times has mentioned the name of the carrier, SouthWest, the airframe maker, Boeing, but not the ENGINE maker.
As we all know - airplane turbines are subjected to rigorous testing made to ensure NO PARTS ARE EJECTED during a destructive event like this.
So, news media, can you answer the question we all have?
Who made ENGINE that FAILED???? GeneralElectric? RollsRoyce? Should we guess?
8
CFM. There are something like 30000 of these engines in use and millions upon millions of flight hours and they have an excellent safety record, even though both Southwest incidents involved them. That may point to something SW is doing, or it may be the luck of the draw. You can't draw statistics from such a tiny sample size -- Southwest has had an excellent safety record.
That said, CFM and Southwest should review their procedures. UA232 (DC10) crashed in part because QC at GE missed a flawed part but mostly because of sloppy maintenance at United. We won't know what happened here until forensics are done.
4
more importantly, who performed the engine maintenance. Does Southwest do the work in-house (unlikely), or is it farmed out to an engine shop? If so, which engine shop? Did you know many airlines use contractors in Asia and South America to do major overhauls on their engines and airframes to save money? And how closely is that work being reviewed by FAA?
2
I can’t wait for the pilot, Tammy Jo Shults, to get her own movie like “Sully” Sullenberger. What a hero!
6
There is a big difference in circumstances between this Southwest flight and the US Air Flight 1549 Flown by Capt Sully. The US Air flight lost BOTH engines at a mere 2,300 feet over a New York City. The Southwest flight only lost ONE engine and was in good flying condition at 32,000+ feet. The Southwest flight had plenty of options on airports to land. Sully's plane with both engines out at 2,300 feet from a bird strike didn't have the luxury of time or an airport landing. Yes, the Southwest pilot did a good job but she had an aircraft that was flyable to any nearby airport.
1
The fuselage sections nearest to the engines should be strengthened against such incidents in the future.
4
Hat's off to both the cockpit crew and flight attendants ! Excellent job !
God bless you !
11
It sounds like these engines on Southwest and other airlines that use them should be inspected more frequently. A sad day for all air travelers.
7
Why in America, do people have to create a hero scenario when ever these events happen? People are trained to do their jobs, and jobs were done well. This hero, celebrity worship, is at the heart of many of our societal problems. Every news cycle, all day long is looking for Villains and Hero'. This happens way too often.
19
Gee, maybe it's because the pilot and crew saved 133 lives.
2
I would like to know the chain of ownership on this 737. Has Southwest owned the plane since it rolled off the line at Boeing? U.S. airlines sometimes buy or lease aircraft that formerly flew with foreign or bankrupt airlines where conditions and maintenance was sketchy.
3
Two or three years ago, I read several articles about how US airlines were shifting their maintenance offshore (Central or South America?) in order to save money and avoid regulation. The articles reported that the mechanics lacked Spanish-language manuals. Now I am wondering if this horrible incident might be linked to that - obviously, I would like to know more.
Thanks to the pilot, Tammie Jo Shults. And rest in peace, Jennifer Riordan.
11
For those who are wondering where the FAA was before this event there was a story about Allegiant Air on 60 Minutes this past weekend where they highlighted the change in FAA from one of compliance and enforcement to cooperation in 2015. It was supposed to allow the FAA and airlines to work proactively to solve problems.
2
Three things the public should do:
1) First watch the process that has led to an ever improving flight safety record - an impartial expert NTSB investigation that will use science and due legal process to determine facts, identify causes and implement remedial actions, with the clout to compel industry compliance.
2) Then contrast that to many lawmakers response to the raft of recent mass shootings - "thoughts and prayers", "its too soon", etc.
3) Vote
27
Containment of a separated fan blade has been accepted as a critical function of engine cowlings since the introduction of fan jet engines. Aircraft designers have recognized the potential catastrophic consequences of engine fragments impacting the wings and fuselage. Attention should be redirected from the engine, because engine failures will always occur, to the housing which should have been strong enough to contain the high energy fragments
9
The containment housing mostly functioned as designed given the lack of damage to the fuselage where you would expect fragments to fly. I am surprised that the damage occurred so far aft, indicating a condition for which the housing was not designed to handle.
4
Looking at that cowling, it was blown apart. There must be some way of building one, perhaps metal enclosing or enclosed by a kevlar containing composite, that would contain an exploding engine. Being open fore and aft, the pressures should be manageable.
Perhaps President Trump who took credit for the accident-free record of commercial airlines during his incumbency should now atone for this tragic event. But will anyone take my bet that he won't?
17
@Korean War Veteran from Santa Fe, NM
With the utmost respect, could we NOT drag politics nor the president into this discussion? To be perfectly honest, my thoughts and heart are with Jennifer Riordan's family as well as with the pilots and flight crew. They experienced extreme emotional trauma when bringing their plane under control and to a safe landing, yet a passenger still lost her life. This crew will feel that loss for a long time because all of their passengers are their responsibility and a painful sense of failure will linger and hover over them. Clearly, these folks did nothing wrong, but they will feel and internalize the situation differently.
11
@Marge Keller: Trump interjected politics into airline safety, which is subject to extensive federal regulation, by claiming his leadership was yielding extraordinary results. As this fatal event reveals, there is much room for improvement in the oversight and enforcement performed by the FAA and NTSB, both of which answer to Trump.
It is irresponsible and dangerous to claim that it is too soon to talk about airline safety or to put political pressure on unresponsive politicians to be proactive in reducing identifiable dangers. Our experience with gun violence, which results in empty choruses of "thoughts and prayers," but not effective laws and enforcement, tells us all we need to know about that approach.
There are public policy improvements that should be implemented with regard to airline safety. The politicians and policy makers are supposed to answer to us, the voting public. If we shirk our responsibility, we share the blame when politicians, including Trump, shirk theirs.
2
@Hugh Wudathunket: I agree with you and firmly believe that "public policy improvements should be implemented with regard to airline safety". I was just hoping this outrage could be shelved for a day or two. I don't know about you and anyone else, but I'm grieving for Jennifer Riordan's husband and two children. But sincere thanks for your insightful post.
1
Lots of real heroes on this plane -- especially the gentleman with his lower back against the opening. Southwest should give him free travel for the rest of his life. Who knows? He may save more lives.
30
If you watched 60 Minutes on Sunday you can see exactly what the airlines are getting away with these days - No oversight, no punishments, no public records...Shocking. And deadly...
14
Same with oil drilling. Why should a certain political party abide by safety regulations what all they do is “kill jobs” and “crush profits”? Get ready for another Deepwater Horizon.
3
An emergency like this always brings out the best qualities in humanity. My prayers are with the victim's family. Hat's off to all the passengers and crew who tried to save her and the pilot who calmly and ably landed the plane safely despite all odds.
29
This article brought me to tears due to the sadness I felt from Jennifer Riordan’s tragic and horrific death, but also due to such pride and gratefulness from the many heroic efforts made by the pilots, flight crew and passengers in assisting other injured passengers as well as landing the plane successfully.
If and when something goes wrong on an aircraft, the pilot’s main focus and attention is TO FLY THE PLANE and land it as successfully as possible, and the flight attendants’ main focus is to care for their passengers. This bunch did everything right when it mattered the most.
I simply marvel and applaud the inner strength, courage, integrity, skill, level of composure and degree of calm these two pilots and the flight crew exhibited when things were at their very darkest. And for so many passengers to help out, risking their own safety in the process only deepens my appreciation and respect for them all.
I fly fairly often. Thank goodness nothing but routine travel has ever occurred while I was flying. God forbid if something ever did wrong awry, I would hope that my pilots and flight crew would be as wonderful, professional, successful and comforting as were those on Southwest Flight 1380.
Deepest condolences to Jennifer Riordan's family, friends and co-workers.
77
As someone in flyover country who frequently indulges in Flightaware, I know that planes flying this route are easily visible from my yard. Southwest flights especially, because of their colorful planes. I often think about the pilots and the people on board, and have wondered about what would happen if something went wrong at 30,000 feet. This was no small feat for the pilot her crew, and for that matter her passengers. Wondering though, if any pieces of the plane made it to the ground and have been retrieved?
14
an engine cowling was later discovered in Bernville, Pa., about 70 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
2
News report today said that part of the engine cover was retrieved 70 miles away from Philadelphia where the plane landed.
2
Kudos to the clear-thinking pilot who brought almost all of her passengers to a safe landing. Condolences to the family of the unfortunate victim.
It bothers me that two such incidents so close together (the last in 2016) should happen to one airline: Southwest. The company's rush to keep schedule, reflected in the compressed way they have their passengers board a plane, certainly pleases "some" travelers. But the attempt to keep aircraft in almost constant service as part of an economic model may have contributed to the two engine failures. I hope the NTSB reviews all of Southwest's maintenance records when they investigate this incident. Haste and on-time arrival should never take precedence over safety.
20
@Wilton Traveler: My family and I fly Southwest fairly frequently. My most recent flight sat on the ground for nearly an hour-and-a-half, with all passengers on board, while repairs were made to a malfunctioning light. My son's most recent SW flight was delayed on the ground so long that he missed his connection in Dallas and had to spend the night there. I don't think that SW is deliberately ignoring maintenance issues. But maintaining an aging fleet is expensive and time-consuming. Maybe it's time for SW to invest in some new planes.
9
Agreed, although I’m not blaming Southwest in a too over the top manner just yet. One occurrence is freaky and I’m sure it was looked at by the engine manufacturer. Now though, it has happened again, which tells me the 737 mayhave an endemic problem with its engines.
And then passengers will scream they are being "gouged" by higher fares.
You want to fly on a brand-new $100-million-plus aircraft, don't expect to get from NYC to LA for $249.
1
So many issues to discuss,
-Regular engine inspection should have caught the metal fatigue before turning into a tragedy
-Windows should be designed so that either they don’t shatter or the open areas are smaller so that someone stays inside. For example by utilizing metal cross bars and at least for those windows near the zone of flying engine shrapnel.
-Could a serving tray have been used to cover the hole and recover some pressure? They were lucky to have a fast acting and brave passenger use himself as a plug.
-Always wear your seatbelt.
31
Serving tray? Is there such a thing on a Southwest flight?
1
Indeed. This should never have happened. The CFM engines these airplanes use are about as bulletproof as they come—with proper and periodic maintenance.
Someone in the EOM division screwed up.
1
Decades ago, an Alaska flight crashed leaving Puerta Vallarta. A j ring was worn.
A whistleblower from Seattle maintenance complained of pressure to cut costs and be a team player vs insist on highest standards. His supervisor said excellence was unrealistic.
We expect meticulous standards when we enter an airplane, an operating room, a car. We are fooled into believing that needless deaths due to carelessness or low standards would be both unthinkable ethically and punished by The Invisible Hand the Market.
No true, not any more.
Deregulation, the wild cry of most GOP legislators has reduced profit margins and, mostly, reduced ticket prices. Do we want those cuts to include lower pay for ground crews, lower standards for replacing metal fatigued parts early- counting on a statistical crap shoot that might suggest a few more flights could be squeezed out before a pricey repair?
It is astonishing to me that this SW plane did not have any contingency plan for a hole...not even a piece of metal they could place over the shattered window...nor do most planes have adequate first aid supplies. A $30 battery blood pressure device has not replaced a plastic stethoscope and cuff, often useless assessing a patient on the floor of a jet where the engine roar is deafening. I was called to attend a woman who passed out on a JetBlue flight- and faced this problem.
If airlines cannot afford a $30 device- what other corners are being cut in the name of discounted tickets?
83
President Jimmy Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act into law on October 24, 1978, the first time in U.S. history that an industry was deregulated. He was a Democrat, and not a Republican. More recently, it was President Obama, at the urging of Rahm Emmanuel, to approve the US Airways - American Airlines merger, Democrats both.
3
Go Navy!
17
Good NTSB video here, showing missing N1 Fan blade, extensive damage to engine cowling and some damage to left wing Leading Edge slats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFzLkFZUUS0
7
Inexcusable, period. Poor maintenance of planes, jeopardizing lives...airlines that don't maintain their planes to the highest standard deserve to FAIL. They earn their demise. Look at this beautiful woman who lost her life so horribly...not even named in Southwest's sympathy but tastelessly, generically called a "customer." Wow.
31
@B Doll: I noticed the term "customer," as well, and it sent a shudder through my body. In SW's eyes, she is not a woman, not a human being with a life of her own, but exists only in relation to Southwest, and in her status as the company's "customer." Grotesque, and yet another symptom of how capitalism is creeping into our subconscious minds, branding us as "customers" or "consumers," whose lives outside of our relationships to companies are irrelevant.
6
Her name had not been released officially when Southwest issued its statement, I believe.
3
All good points. Esp. about not mentioning Ms. Riordan's name.
Kudos to Pilot Shults (wow!!), the co-pilot, rest of the flight crew and the ground controllers for working together so professionally to get that plane down safely. ATC recording can be heard here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkVTdvcghHc
Tragic loss for the family and friends of Ms. Riordan.
26
I just listened to the recording. We know these people are trained for such emergencies but to hear how professionally the pilot and crew handled this amazes me. Hopefully this pilot will be acknowledged as a hero as Capt Sullenberger was when he landed his plane in the Hudson River. Amazing amazing people!!!!!!!!!
3
I thought the nacelle was supposed to prevent an engine failure from sending debris into the cabin. What happened?
12
Reality intervened, John.
Get real.
1
The reporters failed to mention the name of the Captain who calmly managed the emergency and who, along with the First Officer and the rest of the crew, guided the aircraft to a safe landing: Tammie Jo Shults, a former fighter pilot with the U.S. Navy. Hats off to all, and RIP to the passenger who died.
125
So the remaining engine had a fan blade missing, too? Thank goodness they got it on the ground safely. Kudos to the crew (from another airline pilot), and the passenger who put their back against the hole in the fuselage, very brave.
20
There is no evidence whatever that the remaining engine had a missing fan blade or was damaged in any way. I don't know where this notion comes from, but I've seen it mentioned more than once.
1
"So the remaining engine had a fan blade missing, too?"
Doubt it, vibration on run-up would have been intense. I think this remark " a fan blade was missing from the plane’s operating engine" was an editing mistake.
I always had good luck with CFM engines, including a bird ingestion taking off from Denver...
1
Horrible. And rare: perhaps 100,000 or so U.S. flights daily, with years and years in between deadly events. The last previous flight-related deaths on U.S. commercial planes were the Buffalo area Colgan turboprop stall disaster in 2009 and the Lexington, KY, Comair wrong-runway disaster in 2006. Not since the 2001 American Airlines "rudder" disaster in Queens, NY, in 2001, has a U.S. "big carrier" suffered a deadly event. Flying on big airlines is much safer than driving (although not by as much as the industry would like you to believe).
Now if we could only convey to our school children that they are, similarly, *very* safe from school shootings. In fact, they're more than 20 times more likely to be killed in a transport accident, and similarly more likely -- and in some categories, much more likely -- to be killed by *any* of these, and more: drugs, suicide, homicide outside of school, flu and pneumonia, and even school sports if participating. Be mad at me, but check out that it's true.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr65/nvsr65_04.pdf
http://www.unc.edu/depts/nccsi/2011AllSportTables.pdf
http://time.com/5168272/how-many-school-shootings/
7
Sounds like SWA has a major problem with its maintenance and/or not retiring its old engines in a timely manner. More to come and it probably won't be good for SWA. I won't be flying them anytime soon.
7
One data point does not constitute a trend. In FAA opinion, 100+ data points don't indicate a systemic problem at Allegiant. Fatigue failures are difficult to detect and prevent, and I seriously doubt that SWA cut corners on such an essential safety check point.
5
Let's give some credit where credit is due-- to the pilot, Tammy Jo Shults. Her calm demeanor and expertise were directly responsible for the safe landing of that flight.
105
Amen! She did an absolutely amazing heroic job getting that plane on the ground.
2
Why did SW wait until now to begin “enhanced inspection procedures” on its entire fleet? This should have been done in 2016 when another plane of theirs had a similar incident. Hello FAA....what's up??
27
Indeed, this and Allegiant airlines's retaliation against a whistleblower pilot (and others?) and prioritizing of earnings at the expense of safety - to the knowledge of and with virtual complicity by the FAA - as reported Sunday by Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes - warrant urgent changes in the industry and further in-depth reporting. Meanwhile, brava to the pilot and all involved in landing the jet. Most of all, deepest condolences to the family and friends of Ms. Riordan.
1
Congratulations to the pilot Tammie Jo Shults for saving the lives of 148 other passengers in this mid-air disaster on Southwest airlines. SHE is not even mentioned in any meaningful way in this article. But the passengers know who she is and her "nerves of steel." This former Navy fighter pilot would be the pilot I would chose on my flights. She deserves recognition for her performance. Why do I think that if she were a a male, her performance would be lauded? Come on, NYT!
192
You sound as if there was nobody in the right seat. You know, the (male) copilot who was flying during the time Capt. Shults was on the radios and coordinating to handle the chaos in the cabin? And the flight attendants who handled a horrible situation in the cabin? It took the entire crew to do what they did.
7
When an airline can fly you at $49, you better make end-of-life arrangements as part of your trip to-do list........
8
$49 for every seat wouldn't even cover the gas. Ever hear of a loss leader?
I am just amazed at the bravery displayed by every day common people in face of this type of unusual disasters. Is it spontaneous response or are they wired to act that way or have they enacted these scenarios in their head before? Despite the tragedy of Ms. Riordan, the bravery of people involved in pulling her back into the plane, having seen the danger, the impulse to block the open window with one's own back, figuring out how to stay alive lest, more tragedy would happen are some of the random thoughts through my mind. These acts, of course with variety (all types) of support from people around them is just so super-human.
Prayers for Ms. Riordan family.
25
I wonder if this is a harbinger of other design flaws in the Boeing fleet. There are a lot of 737's out there.
Kudos to the crew and passengers whose quick thinking saved the other souls on board.
As an aside note, CPR and an AED would not likely resuscitate a patient with fatal, massive head and torso trauma (unlikely that ATLS protocols in a trauma center would either.) My condolences to the family of this passenger.
7
The CFM-56 engine is a General Electric product, not Boeing's.
3
Just another sign that deregulation and allowing corporations to take little regard for life to focus on their profit margin is dangerous to us all. My heart goes out to the friends and family of that victim.
32
Agree. Aeroflot never had a reported fatality (except for American sabotage) because it was heavily and properly regulated.
Aeroflot hasn’t had a fatality? Really?
3
It only takes a moment on the Internet to disprove Fred's statement about Aeroflot with reliable sources. Aeroflot has more fatalities than any other airline, and most appear due to pilot error or other negligence rather than anything that could be attributed to sabotage.
2
Was Riordan wearing her seat belt? If so, the belts need to be redesigned, especially the ones used in the window seats. .
How old was the failed engine? How effective is SW's engine maintenance? Is metal fatigue detectable before an item goes blooey?
10
Metal fatigue is detectable if you disassemble the engine and x-ray the at-risk parts.
4
A few years ago I read an in-depth article which exposed the maintenance practices of most major airlines. Essentially, a good deal of maintenance on our domestic airplanes is done in Mexico and Central America by mechanics who may not have a full grasp of English because it is cheaper and the airlines want to cut corners to maximize profit. I found it horrifying, and it's in the back of my mind every single time I fly.
Yes, this "should not happen". But as long as a corporation's sole interest is to maximize profit at every juncture, regardless of risk, these things will happen whether it's airplanes or automobiles. Further, as long as corporate boards are allowed to make such reckless and greedy decisions without any personal culpability, these situations will continue to happen.
Greed and corner-cutting killed this woman. Not only should this airline be held responsible, we need to pass laws that personally punish executives for corner cutting especially when this causes injury or death. Obviously, we must also make it illegal for airlines to outsource crucial maintenance, and ensure that proper maintenance is followed regardless of how much time it takes.
Kudos to the incredible skill and courage of the crew of this airliner, and my condolences to the victim's family for their heartbreaking loss.
26
I understand people are shocked and nervous, but let's maintain a sense of proportion. This is the first passenger fatality on a US commercial flight since 2009. It's also the first ever passenger fatality on Southwest in 50 years of business. Some readers here are old enough to recall several major domestic air crashes PER YEAR, often with 100-plus casualties. Sure, there are inquiries and investigations to be carried out, as they always are, and the system will end up even safer,
In addition to the professionalism of the flight crew and cabin crew, and the presence of mind of the more experienced passengers, I want to mention the contribution of air traffic control as well, who performed excellently and calmly in helping resolve this emergency. There are many moving parts to the air transport system.
17
Regardless of the odds - this tragedy was preventable.
2
Actually, this is the second fatality cased by Southwest. The first was several years back at Chicago's Midway Airport when an aircraft landing in a snow event overshot the runway, slid through a barrier and killed a young boy who was riding with his parents in a vehicle on an adjacent street.
It sounds like a particular model of aircraft engine is responsible for both in-flight catastrophes. Are these engines the same on all (Southwest Airline's) 737s? Can we get more information? As for "enhanced inspection procedures", weren't those implemented after the August 2016 incident? Shouldn't we be looking at grounding the fleet?
9
I have never liked flying. Never. People assume it is because I am afraid of crashing. It is not the crashing I worry about, but the minutes before a crash in which I have to pray for enough time to say goodbye to my husband, 3 kids and parents. Who do I call first and what do I say? It’s been said before and is w
3
Oh Heidi, relax, flying is much safer than driving and most other pedestrian activities.
Why worry yourself to death when you can relax and enjoy the ride ?
3
Do you drive a car? Ride in a car? There are more traffic fatalities in Connecticut every day than airplane accidents, you just don't hear about them every twice every hour on the radio for 24 hours. Will you have any time at all to say goodbye in a fatal crash? Why not show your family how much you love them TODAY?
2
Why not do this? Record a beautiful message to everyone you love to be read in case of emergency. Or make it your quote of the day if you will and email everyone you love a fresh new love note when you start the day. I would rather hear my loved one tell me good-bye in a calm, relaxed setting than hearing them scream for their lives while I listen helplessly.
1
The pilots did an excellent job, but this is what all that training is for. Losing and engine and/or sudden decompression are probably the two most rehearsed simulator emergency situations. Unfortunately, a mother of two died in an horrific way, otherwise everyone could have walked off with a great cocktail party story.
Condolences to the family and friends of Jennifer Riordan.
She didn't deserve this.
However, as a matter of perspective, one is far more likely to be struck by lightning or attacked by a shark or die from the flue than to die in a plane crash.
Traveling by car is 100 times more deadly than hopping on a plane.
Life is fragile.
18
As a private pilot I listened to the air traffic control recording in admiration and awe of how professional and calm the pilots and air traffic controllers handled a desperate situation. Kudos to all, especially the pilot, Tammy Jo Shults. She is of the caliber of Chesney Sully.
62
My wife and daughter were on a Southwest flight a few weeks ago from NOLA to LA and the plane lost an engine and had to emergency land in El Paso. Wondering if it was the same plane?
8
Amazing how some people's first thought it is the rush to court with hopes of making money from this tragedy. We do not know what happened other than a poor woman is dead. Investigation will reveal whether negligence was a factor or not. Flying remains safer than driving, cycling or even walking in any large city.
Calm down folks, let the authorities do their job, let this poor woman's family deal with their grief. The lawyers can go after their red meat if and when the time is right.
3
The FAA is not doing its job. I worked for a jet engine maker for a decade, and was in numerous meetings discussing failures and the corrective action. There is a reliance on statistics, particularly weibull statistics, to quantify failures, and for this method to work some of you are going to have to experience engine failures. I hope you live thru the experience.
With those failures, the engine maker then applies a simulation called a 'monte carlo' simulation where they project what a fully developed group of failures are going to look like. Monte Carlo, Las Vegas, Reno, you get the picture? 'Here's where and when we guess we're going to lose engines and our bets with your hides...' is the game the MBA's play, with your life.
And, the FAA has fully bought into this.
Of course, all of this falls apart when the failures are somewhat alike, but not the same failure mode, this method does not work when failures are similar in appearance but differ in substance. Then you get nasty suprises.
This latest is a nasty surprise.
Again for the method to work correctly, the failures have to be fully investigated, a 'relentless root cause analysis', for the method to work. MBA's frequently shut down root cause analyses (yes, plural) when funding is tight and convince the FAA root causes are corrected.
That leaves a small groups of company engineers as keepers of the failure histories and the means to drive corrective action, thru MBA's & FAA.
They were too late for Ms. Riordan.
13
I agree that the FAA is too friendly to the airlines in furtherance of their mission to promote safe air travel, however, without evidence that they extended a relevant maintenance schedule or relaxed a vibration-monitoring capability, I would not place the blame on them for what looks like a metal fatigue failure.
2
Please clarify this: " Once the plane was on the ground, investigators discovered that a fan blade was missing from the plane’s operating engine." Does "operating engine" refer to the right engine, or to the left engine? Since the left engine is the one which failed catastrophically, are we to understand that the right engine also suffered a failure?
19
Yes, one engine was not working and the other was barely working.
I will be eagerly waiting to hear about how the pilots handled this emergency in detail. This unfortunate accident seems like something out of a disaster movie, except almost all of the people came out of this alive. We don't know when it's our turn, but fortunately everybody else made it thanks it seems to some great piloting.
8
As a female private pilot, I'm shocked and appalled about people being surprised a woman was the pilot, who having been trained in the military was able to bring the plane back with a safe landing. Even in a single engine plane emergency procedures are simulated in every lesson (if you have a good instructor) to where emergency procedures are second nature when something does happen. Women do fly commercial planes and sometimes (gasp!) everyone in the cockpit are female. Get use to it flying public!
My condolences to the victims family. This is definitely an accident that should not have happened, by either human or mechanical error.
302
Sister: I am a daughter of the 1970s, the beginning of the era where girls truly believed we could do anything...and we did! But I am still happily surprised and delighted to hear about the exploits of a woman as a USAF fighter pilot! (My daughters, born in the 1980's-90's; they just shrug.)
13
No one is "surprised" that the pilot is a woman, but realistically, women airline captains are still rare enough that it's noteworthy. A pity, but no need to be "appalled" at the messengers.
1
Thank you. My first reaction this morning upon hearing the story was how they emphasized that the plane was piloted by a woman. As if we should be surprised that she actually did her job and landed the plane safely.
1
What a bizarre and gruesome way for a woman to lose her life - may we all bless her. And we can all say shame on Southwest as this isn't the first time an engine exploded due to lax safety inspections - I hope the cost savings they calculated are offset by lawsuits. Kudos to the man using his body while risking his life to close the destabilizing hole -- he deserves free airfare for life plus more. And of course, to the female pilot Tammy Jo Shults - let's hope we idolize her and make a movie star out of her the way we have done to other pilot heroes.
25
One wonders if the pilot, a female former military, will receive as much public praise and attention for carrying out an equally dangerous emergency landing from a high altitude as Sullenberger did for his landing in the Hudson River.
97
She certainly deserves praise, however, this was not equally dangerous. Sully performed a low-altitude, no-power landing on a river. This was a high-altitude decompression and engine loss with time for checklists and selection of an appropriate airfield. Dangerous and an emergency for sure, but there is precedent and procedure for a successful outcome here.
9
Not to denigrate the skill of this excellent pilot, but the act of landing on a runway with one engine out is nowhere near as difficult as landing on a river with no power whatsoever. Both are heroes, to be sure, but the two situations are in no way equally dangerous.
5
Oh for goodness sake, how ludicrous -- this is akin to people who want to compare "button size." Both pilots are heroes, both reacted with cool, calm, professionalism, both deserve praise for bringing their planes in and saving many lives.
4
Someone ought to be reporting on the pilot who steered the plane to safety. She's near the ranks of Captain Sullenberger, and she deserves appropriate recognition.
359
I agree and she also deserves appropriate pay and job security and opportunites for advancment and a stable retirement, all of which captain Sully brought up in front of Congress, which the Congress then quickly ignored.
9
Near the ranks????NEAR????? She is the equal of Captain Sullenberger: she landed her damaged passenger plane safely just as he did!
13
Well, no. They both landed their planes safely, but she had one working engine (Sully had none) and she was over land (while Sully was over water).
2
I wish there was reporting on whether the passenger who died had been wearing a seatbelt. Would wearing a seatbelt prevent a passenger from being suddenly pulled out of a broken window?
38
I saw an interview on CNN with a passenger yesterday and he said she was wearing her seatbelt.
2
It has been reported that she was wearing a seatbelt at the time she was sucked out.
3
Remember that these seat belts are only lap belts. That's what she was only 1/2 way out.
1
We need to hear about the heroic fellow who covered the hole with his back! Did that help the entire plane? Goodness! He risked his life for certain.
In these terrible foolish times with terrible foolish people at the helm, please tell us heroic tales, we need them.
202
While any loss of life is tragic, I do find it remarkable that this is the ONLY death on a US airline since 2009, nearly a decade ago. Compare that to the number of car accidents that happen daily and it's extremely impressive how safe flying really is.
89
Even more remarkable, it is the first U.S. major airline (Group III) passenger fatality since the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in November 2001.
2
Chris, I disagree. If you were aware of the full range of engine failures in just the past few years, you'd be amazed we haven't had more deaths.
It would be more accurate to express amazement at our thinly sliced luck in avoiding fatalities, to date.
Here's a big important question; do you think that luck is going to continue? I'm not optomistic.
1
I fly them all the time. They run very tight schedules and their planes are always on the move. It has always impressed me that they do a good job. However, if true, the thought that metal fatigue allowed the engine to disintegrate is a scary one given the way these planes are always in the air.
Very sad about the passenger. Kudos to the pilots and the passengers who tried to help the injured woman.
24
Somebody didn't do a good job of inspecting the fan blades for cracks.
12
I flew Sunday and took note of my Pilot checking out the plane. More grateful given series of events.
It has been reported that this defect would not have been visible to an inspector.
4
My heart goes out to Ms. Riorden's family and community and kudos to the crack pilots who guided the plane to land. What a terribly frightening experience for the passengers, and a reminder that life is precious..
24
After watching the 60 Minutes expose on Alligient Air, this is very frightening. The scariest part is that the FAA has switched from an enforcer of safety regulations to an advisor to the airlines they supposedly supervise to maintain the public safety. The FAA official on the broadcast was the embodiment of bureaucracy. Contact your representatives and insist on greater responsibility and enforcement from the FAA.
109
I can't believe this woman could have ever possibly survived, having the upper half of her body blwon outside the window of a rapidly depressurizing airplane. What a terrible way to go. I would assume it is worse than being completely sucked out of the plane, as (then) you would have most likely died of severe shock and heart failure long before striking the ground (it would take minutes). Any dead weinght object (IE: a human), would reach maximum velocity of 128 feet per second/per second. That is the law of physics. Therefore, from 38,000 feet, (doing the math in my head) this would take at least minutes. They should have asked a skydiver, as they know the rate of descent, and the time in order to do this hi risk sport.
I in know way mean direspect to the victims faqmily; on the contrary, I am trying to understand why they peformed CPR, etc, for 15 minutes (I think). Shhe was struck by shrapmel the same as if an artillery shel explogded only meters from her head.
My heart foes out to her and especially her children.
Southwest should pay for this, as it has their plane which had the malfunction I AM judging before all the facts are known. That said, it can only be bad days a headfor Southwest.
My daughter lives with my ex-wife in Baltimore (a major Southwest hub, along with Dallas' Love Field. I spoke to my ex last night and she had flown on Southwest in the same model plane (Boeing 737, I think) to the West Coast Monday evening. She was unaware of this tragedy/
3
128 feet p.er second per second is an acceleration, not a velocity
5
Commercial aviation, while exceedingly safe, still involves applied energy and structural forces which always present some degree of risk.
Mitigating that risk means identifying all areas likely to result in failures or anomalies and creating inspection and maintenance programs which will ferret out potential problems.
We can depend on the NTSB to closely examine the entire history of this specific engine from inception through failure to determine the cause and the remedy.
Many conservatives would like to eliminate the NTSB or weaken it and other federal agencies whose mission it is to keep us safer.
The result would simply be an escalation of preventable and tragic accidents.
245
SO TRUE! Worse is the conservatives continue (every year) to cut FAA staff and controller budgets at ALL of our peril.
10
I disagree, if we can depend on the NTSB, then a similar engine failure in 2016 aboard Southwest would not have resulted in this repeat.
This engine, the GE CFM56, had similar failures early in its life, fan blades breaking off, and those failures were solved by de-rating those engine models some 10%.
De-rate two 'ten ton' thrust engines by that amount, and you've got 4,000 pounds less thrust, which means fewer passengers, less cargo, and less money.
The NTSB is less than dependable when up against less profits.
5
It would be interesting to see the maintenance records for this plane. How old was the plane? How old was the engine? When was the engine inspected last? Why wasn't "metal fatigue" detected before the plane took off? Is Southwest gambling with passengers' lives by postponing maintenance and by flying old planes? Those are the questions the NY Times should be asking.
54
These are the questions the NTSB will be asking, and answering, in the weeks to come. Until then, any attempts to attach blame to anyone are fear mongering.
4
Thank you for asking the right questions and not just assuming cost cutting and substandard parts were used.
Those are questions that the NTSB will be asking, but it will be quite awhile before most of the answers are available. There are a few answers that can be easily found now. The plane is 17.8 years old, delivered to Southwest in July 2000, which makes it one of the older planes in the current Southwest fleet. The average age of the fleet at the end of 2017 was 11 years and of the 737-700s 14 years. In 2017, Southwest retired 87 737-300s with an average age at the end of 2016 of 22 years which reduced the average age of the fleet by a year.
This was Southwest's first passenger fatality ever. Over the five years ending in 2017 it flew 610 billion revenue passenger miles. Given that record, the suggestion that Southwest perhaps gambles with passenger lives seems somewhat extreme.
6
Kudos to the pilots for landing safely! I have been on flights that have been delayed due to mechanical issues, and witnessed the irritation of some of my fellow passengers. I'm always grateful that the issue was discovered, and fixed, prior to takeoff. I'm also amazed at the safety record for the airlines, as the complexity of the numerous mechanical systems is mind numbing.
106
Neal, a lot of commercial aircraft take off and fly with discrepancies, maintenance issues, unfixed. In other words, the aircraft isn't 100 percent capable.
Pilots and aircrew are routinely being tasked with juggling systems which don't work, so the idea that problems are discovered and fixed prior to takeoff is simply inaccurate.
The plane meets a minimum standard, that's all.
1
What a horrific way to die! My heart goes out to Ms. Riordan's family.
47
Let's hope she became unconscious very swiftly and never knew the rest. Poor woman.
1
It is a blessing that passengers were able to keep her in the plane, and her body came home.
1
Indeed. Amazing, actually. What a terribly sad thing for the family to be grateful for.
What a wild thing to happen and a tragic way to die.
Makes one wonder how you would react in the situation. Hats off to the man who pressed against the open window.
I think i would recalibrate my life to not only chase my goals but to do good work and take care of people along the way.
35
I don't know if Ms. Riordan was wearing her seatbelt or not, but this incident is a reminder that passengers should always wear their seatbelts when in their seat. It could be that little bit that keeps you from getting tossed about in the cabin in case of an emergency.
144
Other news articles have reported that she DID have her seatbelt on.
7
In reply to 'Old Mountain Man':
The engine explosion caused one of the fan blades to separate from the engine hit the aircraft (hence the broken window). The passenger likely died as a result of being stuck by the fan blade, not from being knocked around in a bumpy aircraft. A seatbelt would not have saved her. This would not be the first such incident where a passenger is killed after being stuck by debris from an uncontained engine failure.
See: https://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/07/us/2-killed-in-jet-on-runway-after-en...
Of course, regardless of this cause of death in this particular incident, it's a good idea to always wear your seatbelt. Passengers not wearing seatbelts are occasionally severely injured after being thrown around by turbulence:
For example: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5113637/Plane-carrying-199-peopl...
1
If it was on, it must have been on loosely.
A lot of heroes in this event, starting with the guy who tried to plug the gash in the plane with his body, and ending with the pilot who successfully landed the plane on one engine. It's hard to fathom the courage and quick thinking of these people.
326
"Our preliminary examination of this was that there’s evidence of metal fatigue where the blade separated,..."
As a lawyer working for a firm suing on behalf of many clients who lost family members in airline accidents, I came to see, as many others did, that the common thread of such cases was the airline saving money on maintenance, operation and using old equipment too long, in order to maximize profit. It is just one of many, many ways our profit system of economics takes lives. This would change if it was really seen by more of us, how the comfort of so many of the "economically comfortable" rests, and always has, on the blood and bones of millions of people.
268
Not a surprising response from a tort attorney. It is way too early to make any assumptions about the underlying cause, even if it turns out to be metal fatigue that is no proof of inadequate maintenance. There may well have been an issue of the schedule needing to be revised by Boeing itself, the part may have been substandard, indicating a manufacturing flaw, at this point we cannot know anything except that excellent piloting by Ms. Shults was able to save the aircraft and all but one of the passengers.
27
And you'd be shocked and disappointed at how many insurance companies are offering coverage for 'catastrophic' failures of aircraft and engines, to the point where its actually better business to let the engine fail catastrophically and collect the insurance for the lost revenue that aircraft and engine combination would have produced.
It's simply more profitable to let the engine fail and collect the insurance than it is to take that engine or aircraft out of service and fix it properly.
I'll bet you and the flying public are very much unaware such insurance exists, nor are you aware your tax dollars are being used to fund FAA investigations into massive metal fatigue failures so the airlines and airframers and engine makers do not have to.
You should be aware such insurance exists, you should be aware the FAA is doing failure work the manufacturer should be doing, and you should be aware that somewhere, some insurance company is on the hook for the lost revenue of that Southwest plane and engine sitting on the ground in Philadelphia right now, this moment.
9
Given the astonishing safety of commercial airline travel, this comment seems unfair. Commercial air travel is safer than any other form of transportation, by a wide margin-- You are 100 times more likely to die in car and frankly, more likely to die walking down a sidewalk, that you are on a commercial flight. Perfect safety is probably not attainable at any price. And, we should be honest in assessing how much additional safety will cost and understand that making air travel more expensive will push people to less safe forms of travel like cars.
10
Listening to the audio recording of the pilot speaking to the air traffic controller was a master class in how to maintain calm in a crisis. Incredibly professional and inspirational. She is one of many heroes in this story.
431
How is it possible that this article does not even mention the pilot's name? The pilot was Tammy Jo Shults and by all accounts she did a masterful job in piloting and landing the plane. How about some credit here for a job well done? Without her skillful piloting this could have been a much more serious disaster.
642
Mike, how about paying Tammy Jo and her colleagues what they're apparently worth? Her profession has been under attack since the 1980s, real horror stories, and you all in the flying public do nothing. Even Captain Sullenberger says so, and he had a dual engine failure over NYC, he is an expert on flight safety and Captain Sully says his profession and its people are under attack. Do more than just write a nice note, demand the pros get paid properly, and demand you get the safe aircraft and engines you deserve. Start now by not taking that low cost flight, reward the company which pays their people and pays for the maintenance, and buy a ticket with them.
10
The airline did not immediately provide the pilot's name -- passengers gave it to some media outlets. Apparently the NYT story came out before that information was confirmed. No doubt they'll have it later. It really is a heroic story. Jump over to Washington Post for details.
5
Exactly my reaction. She is up there with Sullenberger.
10
Had federally mandated maintenance been adhered to by Southwest, this would not have happened.
The courts should throw a book at those responsible.
52
John, the FAA can't charge anyone because the FAA are complicit in approving both the investigation into all prior failures of this type and the corrective actions. The FAA accepted incomplete root cause failure analyses and corrective actions, and the manufacturer's MBA's convinced the FAA this wouldn't ever happen. Again.
You want to find a culprit, there it is, right along with the stock options Corporations award their MBA managers.
5
I don't see any information that says FAA required inspection were not done. Where do you see that?
5
I would agree, but did the article state that Southwest had not adhered to to federally mandated maintenance? Did I miss something?
6
I wonder where this plane had been maintained and inspected? Were they performed in a foreign country that has cheap labor? Were the engine parts made in a country with cheap labor and substandard manufacturing? It's only a matter of time before cost cutting will cost lives. This may or may not be the case in this matter, but it is a fact that maintenance on airplanes is being done on the cheap.
64
Had the previous failures of this type been fully investigated and corrective actions applied completely, Ms. Riordan would be alive today.
5
As with the previous post; where do you see anything about substandard parts or maintenance? Generally speaking training and standards for aircraft maintenance originates with FAA rules and procedures. Maybe you should be haphazardly blaming the GOP for some much budget cutting, even though I don't really think this is the cause either.
7
The answers to all of your questions are “no”. The federal law outlining air carrier operations, 14 CFR 121, is about 2 feet thick. They are not skimping in maintenance, performing it in other countries, using remanufactured or cheaply-made foreign parts. Ever screw on that airplane is documented from fabrication to discontinued. Sometimes things break. What’s really amazing is that something like this doesn’t happen every day.
3
Huge kudos to HER for maintaining her composure and flying the passengers to safety. SHE rocks!! My condolences to the family who lost their mom.
200