Flight attendants reveal new chilling details of finding a mother-of-two’s head and torso hanging out of a broken window and blood on the plane’s exterior on fatal Southwest flight that suffered an engine explosion
- The National Transportation Safety Board began a hearing on Wednesday to investigate the engine failure on Southwest Flight 1380
- On April 17’s engine exploded after an engine blade broke off
- A piece of engine cover struck and broke the window of row 14 on the flight
- The broken window sucked out 43-year-old passenger Jennifer Riordan
- Flight attendants shared their accounts of finding her body out of the window and pulling her head, torso, and arm back into the plane
- One flight attendant described seeing blood on the exterior of the plane and the left engine completely shattered
- Since the accident regulators have mandated more advanced and frequent engine blade inspections
- At the hearing representatives from CFM, Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration were questioned about design of the engine housing
New harrowing details of the fatal Southwest flight where a woman died after she was sucked out of a broken window have emerged.
The National Transportation Safety Board began a hearing on Wednesday to investigate the engine failure on Southwest Flight 1380 that carried 144 passengers and five crew members on April 17.
Officials say an engine fan blade on Southwest Flight 1380 broke off and triggered the accident. A piece of the exploded engine cover then struck and broke the window in row 14, killing 43-year-old passenger Jennifer Riordan.
Flight attendant Rachel Fernheimer said she was helping panicked passengers put on their oxygen masks when she spotted Riordan with her torso, head and arm out of the aircraft and the lower half of her body restrained by just her lap belt.
When she looked out the broken window she saw blood spattered on the exterior of the craft and the engine completely shattered.
New details have emerged from Southwest Flight 1380 that suffered an engine failure on April 17 and resulted in the death of passenger Jennifer Riordan on April 17 after her torso and head were sucked out of a window broken by the engine shrapnel
A flight attendant that helped pull Riordan back into the plane said she saw the victim’s head, torso and arm hanging out of the window. She said she saw blood on the exterior of the aircraft and the left engine was completely shattered
After the flight emergency landed in Philadelphia, National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived to investigate the scene
Following the explosion the jet rolled 41 degrees to the left, smoke began to fill the cabin, and the shrapnel of the engine broke through a single plexiglass window.
The force of the wind from the open window pulled Riordan out. Fernheimer and fellow flight attendant Seanique Mallory grabbed Riordan’s legs as two male passengers worked to pull her body back inside. The flight attendants said a male passenger put his arm out of the window and wrapped it around the woman’s shoulder to pull her back in.
One of the men began to perform CPR on Riordan. She later died from her injuries.
Mallory said it was so loud in the aircraft with the gush of wind, it took several failed attempts to reach and alert the pilots via intercom.
‘We got (unintelligible words) a window open and somebody – is out the window,’ she said on the intercom.
‘Yeah everyone still in their seats, we have people have been helpin’ her get in. I don’t know what her condition is, but the window is completely out,’ she added, according to transcript.
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Passenger Jennifer Riordan, 43, was killed in the incident on April 17 when the engine exploded and a piece of the engine cover shattered her window. The force sucked her head torso and arm out of the plane, she was restrained just by her lap belt. She later died from her injuries
The death of the Riordan, a mother-of-two from Albuquerque, New Mexico, marks the first on a U.S. airline flight since 2009.
Eight other passengers, including one of the men who helped pull Riordan back into the plane, suffered minor injuries.
Pilots Tammie Jo Shults and Darren Ellisor made an emergency landing of the crippled Boeing 737-700 in Philadelphia.
The NTSB hearing in Washington on Wednesday primarily focused on the design and inspection aspects of the fan blades on the engine, which was made by CFM International.
Following the incident CFM recommended more frequent blade inspections with more advanced technology including ultrasound or electrical current tests. Regulators made those changes mandatory.
The blade that broke had made about 32,000 flights and was last inspected in 2012, according to Mark Hadebank, an engineering official at CFM.
He said an examination indicated the blade was likely beginning to suffer cracks from metal fatigue. Fan blades were previously thought to have no lifetime limit.
A spokeswoman for CFM said that the company has ‘responded aggressively’ to complete blade inspections after the fatal flight.
Representatives from CFM, Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration were also expected to be questioned about design of the engine housing, which is supposed to prevent pieces from breaking loose.
Southwest Flight 1380 pictured on the runway at Philadelphia International Airport after emergency landing. A fan blade broke off the engine, triggering the accident
Since the accident regulators have mandated more advanced and frequent engine blade inspections
Federal safety officials plan to question representatives from engine maker CFM International and Boeing about the fatal accident and address the design of the engine housing
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