(Photo: Matt Tranchin)
(Photo: Matt Tranchin)
Southwest Flight 1380
Shattered Passenger Window
Southwest Flight 1380 Engine Failure Claims One Life and Injures 7
A Southwest Boeing 737-700 operating as Flight 1380 from New York La Guardia, NY to Dallas Love, TX with 143 passengers and 5 crew, was climbing through FL320 (32,000 feet) out of New York when the left hand engine was damaged causing inlet and parts of the cowl to separate from the airframe. Debris impacted the side of the fuselage shattering a passenger window causing the loss of cabin pressure. The crew initiated an emergency descent, shut the engine down and diverted to Philadelphia, PA
A similar incident happened to a different Southwest plane last August 27th, 2016 near Pensacola, Florida.
Southwest also had a recent incident where passengers thought they were going to die in severe thunderstorm related turbulence as a flight tried to land at New Orleans.
An Aeronautical Engineer for a major airplane manufacturer told Klamath Alerts today that modern airline jet engines can spin at up to 40,000 RPM during cruise. The force on the spinning “disc” of the jet engine at cruise would be similar to about 28 Chevy Suburbans chained end to end around the disc. The metal parts used to make jet engines are known as “super metals” and they are very strong and will basically “go where they want” when they fly apart, with most barriers unable to stop the flying parts.
A report about the Southwest 1380 incident today said that a female passenger (a mother of two, Wells Fargo executive) was partially sucked out of the airplane cabin as a result of engine parts flying into the fuselage, followed by a rapid cabin decompression. This is speculation based on early reports at this time. The NTSB reported she later passed away. Seven others are reported to be injured from this accident.
“Uncontained Engine Failures” have also happened on other airlines as well. Today’s incident will no doubt bring more awareness to these events that can occur at anytime on a jet aircraft.
The above Youtube video contains the audio from today’s incident if you are interested.
Article by Klamath Alerts. All Rights Reserved.
