Southwest plane emergency landing after engine blows!



First WN onboard fatality ever. Sad and tragic day for everyone involved. Hard to imagine what my former colleagues are going through right now, but we were all trained to handle these events at every level of the company. Props to the flight crew getting the bird on the ground safely. It could have been so much worse with an uncontained failure like this.
 


They hadn't yet reported a fatality when I first posted. So awful. I don't usually drink on my morning flights, but I may order some rum to go with my orange juice later this week.
 
God Bless all who were on the plane
SW has had some issues in the past to fix their planes
JetBlue has been spotless - the reason why we fly them :)
 
Wow. This is unbelievable and so incredibly scary. I'm flying on SW in one week and again in early September. They recently mailed me four drink coupons to be used anytime this year. I think I will need them.
 
We always fly Southwest because they leave out of our local airport, that we prefer. Now I am getting worried. Is Southwest really not taking care of their planes? Are their planes old and getting run down and not maintained?

That poor woman. Many prayers for her and her family. Wondering if I should rethink Southwest now.
 
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We always fly Southwest because they leave out of our local airport, that we prefer. Now I am getting worried. Is Southwest really not taking care of their planes? Are their planes old and getting run down and not maintained?

It is WAY too earlier to make any guesses about the cause of this accident. Yes, it could be due to Southwest maintenance. But, it also could be due to a manufacturing error of an engine part. In that type of scenario, the bad part could have ended up at any other airline that uses the same type of engine.

I know math isn't particularly comforting, but that's what I got so I'll run with it.

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (part of the US Department of Transportation), Southwest Airlines has flown 1.8 billion passengers between 2000 and 2017. Before this accident, there was only 1 fatality caused by a Southwest accident. In 2005, a child riding in a car was killed when a Southwest plane slid off a runway in Chicago.

Adding in this most recent tragedy, 2 deaths out of over 1.8 billion passengers suggests that Southwest has a well-established record of safety.

Data Source:https://www.transtats.bts.gov/Oneway.asp?Display_Flag=0&Percent_Flag=0
Passenger Count for Southwest Airlines
Total 1,881,101,516

2017: 153,859,080
2016: 148,878,754
2015: 142,470,152
2014: 126,745,706
2013: 115,376,527
2012: 112,276,657
2011: 110,624,339
2010: 106,270,433
2009: 101,374,390
2008: 101,965,552
2007: 101,947,800
2006: 96,330,250
2005: 88,435,832
2004: 81,121,296
2003: 74,768,258
2002: 72,459,290
2001: 73,628,735
2000: 72,568,465

Source: https://www.transtats.bts.gov/Oneway.asp?Display_Flag=0&Percent_Flag=0
 
It is WAY too earlier to make any guesses about the cause of this accident. Yes, it could be due to Southwest maintenance. But, it also could be due to a manufacturing error of an engine part. In that type of scenario, the bad part could have ended up at any other airline that uses the same type of engine.

I know math isn't particularly comforting, but that's what I got so I'll run with it.

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (part of the US Department of Transportation), Southwest Airlines has flown 1.8 billion passengers between 2000 and 2017. Before this accident, there was only 1 fatality caused by a Southwest accident. In 2005, a child riding in a car was killed when a Southwest plane slid off a runway in Chicago.

Adding in this most recent tragedy, 2 deaths out of over 1.8 billion passengers suggests that Southwest has a well-established record of safety.

Data Source:https://www.transtats.bts.gov/Oneway.asp?Display_Flag=0&Percent_Flag=0
Passenger Count for Southwest Airlines
Total 1,881,101,516

2017: 153,859,080
2016: 148,878,754
2015: 142,470,152
2014: 126,745,706
2013: 115,376,527
2012: 112,276,657
2011: 110,624,339
2010: 106,270,433
2009: 101,374,390
2008: 101,965,552
2007: 101,947,800
2006: 96,330,250
2005: 88,435,832
2004: 81,121,296
2003: 74,768,258
2002: 72,459,290
2001: 73,628,735
2000: 72,568,465

Source: https://www.transtats.bts.gov/Oneway.asp?Display_Flag=0&Percent_Flag=0

To put things further into perspective, this is the first fatality on a Southwest flight since they began flying in 1971...that's 47 years without a fatal incident of on onboard passenger due to an issue with the equipment. There were two others, the child killed in Chicago due to the overrun during a snowstorm at Midway in 2005 and a passenger died in 2000 from their injuries after they charged and broke into the cockpit and fellow passengers restrained him.

We always fly Southwest because they leave out of our local airport, that we prefer. Now I am getting worried. Is Southwest really not taking care of their planes? Are their planes old and getting run down and not maintained?

That poor woman. Many prayers for her and her family. Wondering if I should rethink Southwest now.

The aircraft in question was about 18 years old. The average age of aircraft in the Southwest fleet is just over 10 years. The 737-700s, which this was one of, has an average age of 13.9 years. The carrier has 720 aircraft in the fleet with an additional 229 on order right now.

If you want to compare, American Airlines average age is the same; Delta Air Lines average age is almost 17 years; United is just over 14 years; and JetBlue is just under 10 years. I know a lot of people like JetBlue, but for example their largest fleet type is the A320 and the average age of them is almost 13 years now with no more on order. In fact B6 only has one more aircraft on order and then no additional ones planned at this time.

For those getting nervous I would just suggest to relax. Southwest has been one of the safest airlines ever. This is a tragic event and hits everyone pretty hard - especially with something like this happening Southwest being nearly unheard of. The NTSB needs to do their job though. Uncontained engine failures can happen for a multitude of reasons and it is something that needs to be identified. The take away with everything is the industry learns from its accidents. There are thousands of 737s flying and even more aircraft that use the CFM56 engine (especially in the military). The reliability is nothing to gloss over and if there is something that might be wrong with this engine, there is going to be a major push to find out what and quickly.
 
From what I heard late last night, it's more than likely a case of metal fatigue...and there was a similar issue less than two years ago. If that is truly the case, twice in two years isn't a good thing.
 
To put things further into perspective, this is the first fatality on a Southwest flight since they began flying in 1971...that's 47 years without a fatal incident of on onboard passenger due to an issue with the equipment.

Good point. I did know this was the first passenger death due to an accident. I had to look up the passenger counts individually by year, so I stuck with the current century. I had wanted to include the total number of flights each year but couldn't find accurate data.
 
For those getting nervous I would just suggest to relax. Southwest has been one of the safest airlines ever. This is a tragic event and hits everyone pretty hard - especially with something like this happening Southwest being nearly unheard of. The NTSB needs to do their job though. Uncontained engine failures can happen for a multitude of reasons and it is something that needs to be identified. The take away with everything is the industry learns from its accidents. There are thousands of 737s flying and even more aircraft that use the CFM56 engine (especially in the military). The reliability is nothing to gloss over and if there is something that might be wrong with this engine, there is going to be a major push to find out what and quickly.

Telling nervous people to just relax is NEVER an appreciated response! I suffer from anxiety in general, I am not going to stop flying SW, but we have every right to be nervous!
 
Telling nervous people to just relax is NEVER an appreciated response! I suffer from anxiety in general, I am not going to stop flying SW, but we have every right to be nervous!

:rolleyes2

The poster didn't tell anybody to "just relax"; the poster provided additional information to put some logic into the situation...
 
I'm getting on a SW plane in a few days. This one sounds scary. More info to follow I'm sure, but a woman was partially sucked out when the window broke. Looking for a news link.

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/nat...adelphia-International-Airport-480008613.html

If you're nervous, remember what DH says- that right now, SW is the SAFEST airline to fly. They know the FAA (or whoever) is looking at them very closely, so they're being extra-sure that they do everything correctly.
 
From what I heard late last night, it's more than likely a case of metal fatigue...and there was a similar issue less than two years ago. If that is truly the case, twice in two years isn't a good thing.
For comparison's sake, in 2015 Allegiant made at least 77 emergency landings because of serious mechanical failures including at least one incident where the same plane made two unscheduled landings for the exact same issue in a 24 hour period.

2 incidents in a two year period doesn't scare me.
 
From what I heard late last night, it's more than likely a case of metal fatigue...and there was a similar issue less than two years ago. If that is truly the case, twice in two years isn't a good thing.

yes, just saw a discussion about this on CNN, the reporter was saying if you look at the engine after the August 2016 southwest incident, it looks identical to the engine damage from yesterday's tradgedy
 

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