Tragic accident: Woman dies in Southwest Airlines engine explosion

Tragic accident: Woman dies in Southwest Airlines engine explosion

A woman has died and seven others have been left injured after a Southwest Airlines flight blew an engine midair.

The ABC reports the Boeing 737 was en route from New York to Dallas with 149 people on board when it was forced to make an emergency landing in Philidelphia.

The plane was cruising at 30,000 feet when an engine blew and the plane was hit by shrapnel which smashed a window.

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The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Robert Sumwalt, confirmed one person had died at a media briefing, according to Reuters.

Sumwalt also commented that it was the first passenger fatality on a US airline since 2009.

NBC reports that several witnesses have described a woman being partially sucked out of the broken window as fellow passengers tried to pull her back in.

The plane’s captain, Tammy Jo Shults told air traffic controllers “We have part of the aircraft missing, so we’re going to need to slow down a bit.”

“They said there is a hole and someone went out,” Shults added, according to NBC.

Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel said the passengers did some amazing things under the circumstances, with one man rushing to cover the broken window and many others tending to and comforting the injured, reports the ABC.

Passengers also commented on the skill shown by the pilot.

The ABC quotes one passenger, Eric Zilbert, an administrator with the California Education Department, saying: “We were very lucky to have such a skilled pilot and crew to see us through it,”

“The plane was steady as a rock after it happened. I didn’t have any fearing that it was out of control.”

Shults also reportedly walked through the aisle and talked with passengers to make sure they were ok after the plane touched down.

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