Woman dies after broken window partially sucks her out of a Southwest Airlines flight

A woman has died after a Southwest Airlines engine exploded in mid-air.

 

A woman who was partially sucked out of a window of a Southwest Airlines plane after an engine exploded in mid-air has died.

 

Jennifer Riordan, a bank executive and mother of two, was killed after shrapnel from the flight’s blown out engine broke a plane window.

 

The incident occurred Tuesday on flight WN1380 from New York’s La Guardia airport to Dallas, Texas, with 143 passengers and five crew on board.

 

In a recording released by NBC News, Pilot Tammie Jo Shults is heard saying to air traffic control: “We have a part of the aircraft missing, so we’re going to need to slow down a bit.”

 

Shults then made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.

 

Southwest confirmed the death of the passenger in a statement.

 

“I want to extend my deepest sympathies for the family and loved ones of our deceased customer,” Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly said. “They are our immediate and primary concern and we will do all that we can to support them during this difficult time and the difficult days ahead.”

 

The US airline industry had gone nine years without a single accident-related death.

 

The last time a fatality occurred on a US airline was on 12th February 2009, when a Colgan Air commuter plane crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing 49 people on board and one person on the ground.