Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 flight 1380 from New York LaGuardia (LGA) to Dallas Lovefield (DAL) made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) as the aircraft suffered damage mid-flight.
At least one passenger was fatally injured, according to reports.
The accident occurred as debris from disintegrating engine shattered an aircraft window, causing depressurization and fatally injuring a female passenger. The passenger was sucked through the shattered window when the cabin rapidly depressurised, but pulled back in by other passengers.
Damage to the left aircraft engine its fuselage and a window were later confirmed by the Federal Aviation Administration.
During a press conference called by the NTSB it emerged that part of an CFM-56 aero engine had disintegrated and that blade number 13 (one of 24 blades) had broken off at the base or hub and this is probably suggest the NTSC, due to metal fatigue, The cockpit voice recorder had been recovered and is now on the way to Washington Dc for a full download and report by next Monday, a preliminary decoding of the voice traffic revealed that the female first pilot had called for an emergency landing as all types of alarms were sounding and that number one engine had been shut down. The aircraft was continuing on just one functional engine. An emergency landing at the first available airport was requested and the aircraft emergency landed at speed with flaps set at 5 rather than the normal 30 to 40 setting. There were 144 passengers and 5 crew on board.
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