Southwest Airlines flight 1380 from New York to Dallas had to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia today. One of the plane’s engines reportedly exploded, breaking a window and causing a woman to nearly be sucked out. One person has been confirmed dead, and passengers are sharing photos and videos from the incident – including ones taken from the air.
Screenshot: Southwest Airlines flight 1380 passenger livestream after the engine on his flight exploded (Facebook)
One father-in-law of a passenger told Philadelphia’s local NBC affiliate that a female passenger was being sucked out of the broken window before being thankfully “pulled back in by other passengers”. That passenger was reportedly rushed to the hospital upon landing.
“We are in the process of transporting customers and crew into the terminal,” Chris Mainz, a Southwest airlines representative, told Gizmodo by email. “The aircraft, a Boeing 737-700, has 143 customers and five crewmembers onboard. We are in the process of gathering more information.”
One Twitter user, Joe Marcus, posted a photo of the blown out engine, which has since gone viral on social media.
What a flight! Made it!! Still here!! #southwest #flight1380 pic.twitter.com/Cx2mqoXVzY
— Joe Marcus (@joeasaprap) April 17, 2018
But it was the attempt by one passenger to livestream the aftermath that gave us one of the most horrifying pictures of today’s emergency landing.
Marty Martinez, a passenger on the flight, broadcast his experience live on Facebook. It’s heavily distorted, but in the beginning you can see him on the phone with his oxygen mask on. Martinez told CBS News that the plane had “blood everywhere“.
Captions by Martinez on his video tell the story of what he was going through as passengers thought they were about to crash. One of the captions on his video livestream reads:
Engine exploded (we think) and shattered one of the windows killing a passenger. Flight attendants ran over calling for passengers to help cover the hole as they broke down and began uncontrollably crying and looking horrified as they looked outside. Plane dropped dramatically and it smelled like fire with ash coming down on everyone thru the vents. Absolutely terrifying, but we are okay.
Martinez continued later:
Someone on the plane had a heart attack and it looks like an engine blew out then a window was blown open. We are still on the plane and they are trying to revive a woman on the plane
It has been confirmed that one person died, but Martinez could not be immediately reached for comment.
Martinez posted both photos and video after landing, which showed the harrowing moments when passengers thought they might crash.
The US National Transportation Safety Board tweeted that the organisation is still investigating the incident, and announced that it’s sending a team to Philadelphia to investigate.
Photo: AP
Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel initially announced that one passenger was critically injured and seven others were treated for minor injuries. The passenger in critical condition was transported to the hospital.
JUST IN: One person transported to hospital in critical condition from emergency landing in Philadelphia, official says; several others treated for minor injuries. https://t.co/N57NdCdpKy pic.twitter.com/niTOSkG49l
— ABC News (@ABC) April 17, 2018
NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt has since given a press conference this morning, and has said that there has been one confirmed fatality. Other than that he admits that, “we don’t have a lot of factual information to report at this time”.
Screenshot: Fox News
[CBS News and NBC Philadelphia]