Woman partially pulled from Southwest Airlines 737 in flight

a reply to: howtonhawky

They report on the areas that they cover. To70 is a consulting firm, not an official aviation safety group.

a reply to: Woody510

The mechanic visually matched the new screws to the removed screws, and they were something like 1/8th of an inch too short.

originally posted by: grey580
a reply to: Zaphod58

This is what?

The third engine cowling to come apart in flight? Is there any rumors of defective manufacturing or anything being the cause?

I'm in my last year of A&P school. The only conceivable reason that I can think of for a failure of a cowling is that the mechanic failed to secure it after working on it. Or used wrong hardware to secure it not having read the rest of the comments yet this is only my opinion. The cowling is designed to contain engine parts in the case of a failure. That being said ill wait till the faa report to come out. Because crazy one off, could have caused a cascading failure of the safety systems.

Sad news. One of the injured passengers died.

www.foxnews.com...

a reply to: ashnomadonte

All of them to date, where the ring cowl has separated, have been caused by blade failure in one of the turbines.

a reply to: EchoesInTime

I figured she would. That's not usually a survivable injury. Between the damage to her lungs and the head injury, that's asking the body to endure a lot.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Now that there is a fatality, Southwest Airlines will be paying a price for this (their stock is already down)

UGH.

I typically fly 2-3 times a year and even after well over a hundred commercial flights, I'm still always nervous. I think is probably around number 3 on the list of flying related fears.

1. Suicidal pilot.
2. Cartwheeling on the runway (exploding tires, last minute dipping wing hitting runway, etc)
3. Gaping hole opening in fuselage.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: ThePeaceMaker

He was held in place by the Purser while the FO landed the plane. I believe the FO never flew again.

Yeah, well, firsthand experience or witnessing, that would effing do it for me for a career in flight too, so I don't blame him

Holy moly, just listened to the approach audio....😲 Props to ATC and Pilot /FO, I know it's their job, but absolute professionals so calm it is reassuring to know.

RIP to the poor lady, when it was stated she was "outside" at that FL, not something you will survive....

And back to sheeting myself on every flight.......

Thanks to Zaphod for the audio 👍

TheTaff

a reply to: Zaphod58
Zap, in a situation like that with cabin decompression, how quickly could the pilot/s bring such an aircraft down to a "safe" altitude -- meaning enough oxygen in the air for passengers to breathe w/out the masks? IIRC the drop-down masks only provide about 10 mins of O2 for passengers, and in EchoesInTime's linked fox news report, a passenger said they were going down for "ten to fifteen minutes".

Would passengers in a decompressed cabin even be able to effectively inhale at 32,000 ft? I mean, from this image, it doesn't even look like most passengers were wearing the masks properly:

[Image credit: Marty Martinez, from Fox news page HERE]

When I last flew on a jet a few weeks ago, we were told to make sure the mask covered our mouth and nose.

Worst nightmare for me, except they survived, so not quite. Glad they did though.

a reply to: JustMike

It depends honestly. If it's something like an outflow valve they can descend faster. In this case, with damage they descended slower. They generally put their masks on in the cockpit and push over then worry about telling the ground what's going on.

Fifteen minutes was, to put it bluntly, pulled out of their ass. They were at 32,500 feet at the time, and descended to 10,000. They descended at 3,000 fpm according to Flight Aware, so that would have put them at 10,000 in less than 8 minutes, and below 18,000 (the highest altitude that people could breathe without masks) in about 6.

Lots of lawsuits for the engine manufacturer less for the airline and plane maker but they will all pay.

A sad but happy moment 200?? survived and perhaps because the woman partially plugged the hole it helped them survive.

a reply to: mikell

They might be able to name Boeing and CFM in the suit, but unless it went to CFM for overhaul recently, this is going to come down on Southwest. The aircraft is 18 years old so it's long past any Boeing involvement.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
Mein Gott!!!!

Glad i don't fly.

Airplanes are an extremely safe method of travel.
Far safer than cars or buses.

originally posted by: rickymouse
The last time I flew, lightning hit the engine on my side of the jet. The stewardess jumped and landed in my lap with her arms around my neck. It was the angels that did this.

That's the best experience you could ask for on a flight. I hope she was young and curvey. I fly mostly international. None of the flight attendants are young. Much less curvey.

Lady died according to Tweeter

www.bloomberg.com... m_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=tictoc&cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-tictoc

The aircraft is N772SW, powered by CFM56-7B22 engines. It was delivered in July of 2000 and as of February had 63,000 hours and 36,700 cycles. The flight departed LaGuardia at 1045. They reached cruising altitude just after 11am, and was reported on the ground at approximately 1120am in Philadelphia.

a reply to: Zaphod58
That's about what I figured. Fifteen minutes sounded absurd to me, and even ten was a stretch. But for people under stress, every second would feel like ten.

Some have mentioned the professionalism of the cockpit crew and ATC, but just to illustrate, I've transcribed a crucial minute's worth of the recording you posted back on page 2 in your post HERE. I do not know if it was the Captain or First Officer communicating with ATC from the Southwest flight, but you can hear the tension in her voice. And understandably, considering what she knew of the situation they faced:
Time on the recording: cca 16:23 to 17.30:

Capt. or F/O: Southwest 1380, we'd like to turn... start turning it now.

[Reply from ATC, giving details of where airport and runway is, and advising about approach altitude.]

Capt. or F/O: Ok, could you have the... medical meet us there on the runway as well. We've got...um... injured passengers.

ATC: Injured passengers, ok, and are you – is your airplane physically on fire?

Capt. or F/O: No, it's not on fire, but part of it's missing. [short pause] They said there's a hole and… someone went out.

ATC: Umm – I'm sorry, you said there's a hole and somebody went out?

Capt. or F/O: [unintelligible]

ATC: Southwest 1380, it doesn't matter, we'll work it out there. The airport's just off to your right. Report it in sight, please.

Capt. or F/O: It's in sight.

It's almost impossible to imagine what it must be like for pilots in a situation like this. Yes, they train regularly in simulators, but when it's the real thing, it's beyond nightmares. These events are so rare that I'd expect many pilots go their entire careers without having to deal with such an emergency. And as for the ATC guy, he was freaking amazing. Not just in keeping up the comms with this stricken flight, but also with all the other aircraft in the area.