Southwest’s Emergency Landing

April 27, 2018

For the 149 people abroad the Southwest flight from New York to Dallas on April 17th, 2018, a normal flight quickly turned into a terrifying series of events. As the plane cruised about 35,000 feet in the air, the left engine broke creating an explosion inside the plane. “In the chaos, it was hard to hear anyone. Flight tracking website Flightradar24 estimated the plane descended from 31,684 feet to 10,000 feet in about five minutes.” Passengers scrambled to keep the air from the outside out of the plane by stuffing the holes with clothes and bags. After an investigation, it was discovered that the plane had an internal issue called metal fatigue. “Metal fatigue is not something that could be seen at a glance, and because it was internal, even a careful maintenance inspection from outside the engine may have missed it”. The pilot managed to successfully land the plane in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and there was a single causality. The woman who died was named, Jennifer Riordan who worked at Wells Fargo and was a mother of two. A statement in her memory says, “”She is the bedrock of our family. She and Mike wrote a love story unlike any other. Her beauty and love is evident through her children,” the statement said. “In her memory, please remember to always be kind, loving, caring and sharing.” The tragic loss of Jennifer Riordan was the first death in the Southwest Airlines history.

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