A Southwest Airlines plane made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport Tuesday morning after its left engine exploded and broke at least one window.
Southwest posted a statement on Twitter that they were “aware” of the incident on Flight #1380 from New York City to Dallas. Five crew members and 143 passengers were on board the plane at the time of the explosion.
Update on Flight #1380: pic.twitter.com/JhwVlUBeia
— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) April 17, 2018
Passenger Marty Martinez shared a Facebook live video of himself with an oxygen mask as the plane made its emergency landing. “Something is wrong with our plane!” he wrote in the caption. “It appears we are going down! Emergency landing!! Southwest flight from NYC to Dallas!!”
After the plane had safely landed, Martinez told CBS News that something went wrong about 30 minutes into the trip.
“All of a sudden, we heard an explosion and I come to find out that the engine exploded on the left side of the plane,” he said. “That explosion caused one of the windows to explode in row 17 of the plane, which was just two aisles over from me.”
He added, “I thought I was cataloging the last moments of my existence. It was absolutely terrifying.”
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Horrifyingly, reports claim that a female passenger was partially sucked out of one of the broken windows, but fellow passengers were able to pull her back in.
BREAKING: Southwest plane makes emergency landing at Philadelphia Airport after reportedly depressurizing mid-flight.
The father of a female passenger said she was partially sucked out of the plane, but then pull backed by other passengers, WCAU reports. pic.twitter.com/bl4xRqPWaQ
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 17, 2018
Pictures of the damage to the plane are circulating across social media, and they’re frightening.
Inside the cabin of #SouthwestAirlines 1380, via Twitter user Matt Tranchen. Blown window. pic.twitter.com/2QyjHByfih
— Doug Dunbar (@cbs11doug) April 17, 2018
Had several engines fail on me in flight, but never one torch up and separate blades. Excellent design and structural work by #Boeing kept that bird intact and the passengers alive. #SouthwestAirlines pilots did a pretty good job as well. pic.twitter.com/JWYspp7kIo
— Chris Harmer (@Navyharmer) April 17, 2018
Despite the engine failure, by all reports, the pilot and crew did a fantastic job of guiding the plane to safety. Passenger Kristopher Johnson told CNN, “It definitely was a stable landing. When we finally landed it was relatively smooth. Kind of a typical landing.”
JUST IN: A NYC-to-Dallas Southwest flight made an emergency landing in Philadelphia. CNN just talked to one of the passengers on board. https://t.co/zTIQJAAaYe
— Meg Wagner (@megwagner) April 17, 2018
The FAA and National Transport Safety Bureau (NTSB) is currently gathering information about the incident. The NTSB will provide an update on the situation at 3 p.m. EST.
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