What you need to know
Southwest flight 1380: While en route from New York to Dallas, the plane diverted to Philadelphia when its engine failed.
Death toll: A woman has died, according to the NTSB.
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Southwest flight suffers jet engine failure
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Our live coverage has ended. Go here or scroll down to read more on the deadly Southwest accident.
Piece of damaged engine found 70 miles outside of Philadelphia, NTSB official says
A piece from the damaged Southwest jet was found in Bernville, Pennsylvania, 70 miles outside of Philadelphia, NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said at a press conference tonight.
The engine cowling was discovered in an area near where the crew first observed issues with the aircraft, he said. Investigators performed a preliminary examination of the engine and found evidence of metal fatigue, where the blade separated from the engine, Sumwalt said.
A preliminary review of the aircraft’s voice recorder indicated Southwest flight 1380 was initially “routine,” he said. About 20 minutes after takeoff, multiple warnings and alerts went off in the cockpit, Sumwalt said.
The crew deployed their oxygen masks and reported a fire in the No. 1 engine, he said. They later determined there was no fire.
“They were operating single engine and they were initiating an emergency descent,” Sumwalt said.
The crew requested emergency personnel assistance and an extended final approach “because they were concerned with potential aircraft controllability issues,” he said.
Sumwalt said specialists will be examining the aircraft, engine and maintenance records.
Photo shows damaged Southwest jet
The National Transportation Safety Board has released this photo of the damaged Southwest aircraft.
The photo shows NTSB investigators inspecting the plane’s engine.
Victim in deadly Southwest accident identified
CNN affiliate KOAT is reporting Jennifer Riordan, 43, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was identified as the victim in today’s Southwest Airlines jet accident.
CNN is working to independently confirm.
Two passengers pulled in woman hanging out of broken jetliner window, witnesses says
Passengers aboard a Dallas-bound Southwest Airlines flight Tuesday struggled to pull a woman back into the plane after she was sucked into a hole left by a shattered window, witnesses said. The woman died, officials said.
The woman was sitting on the left side of the plane when something in the engine apparently broke and smacked into the window. She hung out the hole for many minutes, said Amy Serafini and Hollie MacKey, who were in the seats behind the victim.
Many passengers kept trying to pull the woman back into the plane for a long time, until two men were able to get the woman back in her seat, they said.
A nurse answered a call for help and also tried to do CPR.
Boeing: "Our thoughts are with all of the passengers and crew"
Boeing just issued a statement about today’s accident involving Southwest Airlines flight 1380 in Philadelphia.
The company said:
The Boeing 737-700 suffered damage to one of its engines, officials said.
This is Southwest Airlines' first fatality due to an in-flight accident
Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly, speaking at a press conference tonight, said this is the first fatality the airline has had due to an in-flight accident.
Kelly said the plane’s captain has been with the airline since 1994, and said the crew performed “magnificently.”
Kelly also said he has reached out the family of the deceased passenger, but has not yet been able to make contact with them.
Southwest Airlines CEO: "This is a sad day"
Gary Kelly, CEO and chairman of Southwest Airlines, said the airline is sending a go-team to Philadelphia to assist with response efforts.
“This is a sad day and our hearts go out to the family and the loved ones of the deceased customer,” he said.
Kelly said he was not aware of any issues with the jet and engine involved in the accident. He said the plane was last inspected on April 15.
“We don’t know the cause of this incident,” Kelly said.
Engine model had an "outstanding safety and reliability record," company says
The engine that blew on Southwest Flight 1380 was made by CFM International, a joint venture of GE and the French company Safran Aircraft Engines.
In a statement on Tuesday, CFM said that it has sent a team of technical representatives to the site of the emergency landing to help the National Transportation Safety Board investigate. The company said it couldn’t share any information or details about the accident.
GE and Safran “will make every resource necessary available to ensure support,” CFM said.
CFM said that the engine was a model CFM56-7B. That model has “compiled an outstanding safety and reliability record since entering revenues service in 1997 while powering more than 6,700 aircraft worldwide,” the company said. “The engine has accumulated more than 350 million flight hours as one of the most reliable and popular jet engine in airline history.”
The latest on the deadly Southwest accident
What happened: Southwest flight 1380 was traveling from New York City’s LaGuardia airport to Dallas when one of its engines was damaged. The plane made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.
The victims: One passenger on the plane died, according to the NTSB. Fire officials said they treated seven people on scene for minor injuries.
What it was like on the plane: A passenger on the plane said an older woman sitting next to a blown-out window was partially sucked out of it. “People in the other rows are — just trying to plug the hole, which sounds ridiculous, because you know people are using jackets and things, and it’s just being sucked right out,” Marty Martinez told CNN.
Martinez said he and other passengers didn’t believe they’d survive the landing. He began recording a final Facebook Live video for his loved ones while his colleague next to him wrote a goodbye not to his wife and unborn child.
Southwest Airlines: We are "devastated" by this tragedy
Southwest Airlines confirmed there was one fatality in today’s jet engine failure in Philadelphia.
Here’s what the airline said in its statement:
Southwest said flight 1380 was diverted to Philadelphia International Airport after the crew reported issues “with the number one engine which resulted in damage to the fuselage.”
The Boeing 737-700 was flying from New York to Dallas, with 144 passengers and five crew members onboard.
This is the first fatal accident on a US carrier in almost a decade
One person died on Southwest Airline’s flight 1380 after the aircraft’s left side engine was lost.
That marks the first fatal accident involving a commercial U.S. passenger airline flight in nearly a decade.
The last deadly accident on a U.S. passenger plane was in February 2009, when Colgan Air 3407 crashed in wintery conditions while on approach in Buffalo, killing 49 aboard and one person on the ground.
He wrote a goodbye note to his wife and unborn son
Marty Martinez was on Southwest flight 1380 with a colleague, who started writing a final note to his loved ones as the plane made an emergency landing, Martinez said.
“My colleague is sitting right next to me, and he’s focused just looking down at his phone, and I glance over, writing his last words to his wife and his unborn son,” Martinez told CNN.
That’s when Martinez started fearing that he and his coworker would die on the flight.
He didn't think he'd survive, so he broadcast his final words on Facebook live
Passenger Marty Martinez said he logged onto Facebook and started a live video as the plane made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.
The live video seemed like the best way to communicate with all of his loved ones at the same time, he said.
It showed Martinez, his oxygen mask strapped over his mouth, looking into the camera and typing updates to the friends and family members who tuned in.
Martinez said he didn’t think he’d survive the flight.
“The plane was going down fast, it felt like things were getting worse, people were screaming, and all I could focus on was just sending out messages that I wanted to get out to the people that I loved,” he said.
Southwest passenger: Everybody was going crazy, crying and screaming
Southwest passenger Marty Martinez, who was seated two rows behind the blown-out window, told CNN what it was like when the engine failed: People were screaming, crying, and trying but failing to send text messages and calls:
NTSB classifying Southwest incident as an "engine failure"
NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said investigators are currently classifying the event as an “engine failure.”
He said it could ultimately be classified as an uncontained engine failure, though that is a technical term which depends on where, precisely, the parts that left the engine originated from.
He added that as a former Boeing 737 pilot, he has never experienced anything like it himself, though the NTSB sees about “three or four” uncontained engine failures a year, though not all of those involve US carriers.
He gave the example of Air France Flight 66, which made an emergency landing in Canada last fall after one of its engines failed during an Atlantic crossing.
Sarah Eamigh, a passenger on the flight, told CNN partner CTV News that passengers sensed something was wrong during that 2017 flight.
“We heard a loud pop, and we had a quick descent along with some vibration. It definitely was not turbulence so we knew something was wrong,” she told the Canadian broadcaster.
“The captain was able to recover the plane quite fast, however, we were definitely nervous because the vibrating was probably occurring a good five to eight minutes. And then the captain basically 10 to 15 minutes after provided an announcement stating that we had a small engine explosion.”
NTSB official: One dead in Southwest jet engine failure
NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt speaking at a media briefing said one passenger has died in the incident involving Southwest flight 1380.
He did not provide further details.
Philadelphia fire official responds to reports plane was in a "free fall"
The Fire Commissioner of Philadelphia, when asked by reporters if SW Airlines 1380 was in a “free fall” as described by some passengers on social media, referred the question to the NSTB but added during an emergency landing descent “happens in a fairly rapid manner.”
Flight information provided by FlightRadar24 showed the plane went from approximately 30,000 feet to 13,000 feet in five minutes.
The entire descent took approximately 15 minutes.
Southwest passenger was partially sucked towards gaping hole, witness says
Marty Martinez was sitting two rows behind the window that was blasted out on the Southwest flight. Martinez said an older woman was sitting in the window seat next to it, and parts of her body were “sucked” toward the hole.
“She wasn’t like sucked out of the window or pulled out. But her like arms and her body were sucked, like sucked in that direction, from my vantage point. So you see people, from the back of the seat, holding onto her, you know, trying to keep her contained,” Martinez told CNN.
Meanwhile, other passengers were trying to patch the hole in the plane.
“People in the other rows are — just trying to plug the hole, which sounds ridiculous, because you know people are using jackets and things, and it’s just being sucked right out,” he told CNN.
Here's the latest on the Southwest emergency landing
What happened? Southwest flight 1380 was traveling from New York City’s LaGuardia airport to Dallas when one of its engines was damaged. The plane made an emergency landing in Philadelphia, where passengers used air stairs to disembark the aircraft, the statement said.
Who was hurt? One passenger from Southwest Airlines 1380 was taken to a hospital in critical condition, fire officials said. They also treated seven people on scene for minor injuries.
What does the plane look like now? The crew reported damage to one of the aircraft’s engines as well as the fuselage and a window, the FAA said in a statement. Here’s a photo from CNN affiliate KYW showing the plane’s damaged engine:
What was it like to be on the plane? Passenger Kristopher Johnson described what happened to CNN. “All of a sudden we just heard this loud bang, rattling and then it felt like one of the engines went out. The oxygen masks dropped and flight attendants did a good job.” He added that the emergency landing was “stable” and “relatively smooth.”
What happens now? The National Transport Safety Bureau is sending “a go-team” to Philadelphia to investigate Southwest engine incident. The bureau will hold a press conference around 3 p.m. ET.
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