New Orleans- One critical part of the investigation into the engine failure that occurred on the fatal Southwest flight this week: Did the engine have the safety upgrade ordered after a Southwest flight from New Orleans had an engine failure two years ago?
Investigators don’t know yet what caused the engine failure that forced Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 to an emergency landing in Philadelphia on Tuesday, but it has similarities to an incident with the same airline in 2016.
Both involved an engine fan blade that had detached. And in both cases, the National Transportation Safety Board says, there appear to be signs of metal fatigue at the detachment point.
“In aviation, there should be inspection techniques and procedures in place to detect something like (metal fatigue),” NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said Wednesday.
“What we want to find out is why was this not detected ahead of time.”
Read about the New Orleans incident– and the FAA safety mandate that followed– after this recap of Tuesday’s fatal engine failure.
Tuesday’s fatal incident
On Tuesday morning, Southwest Flight 1380 departed New York for Dallas with 149 people aboard. But about 20 minutes in, what sounded like explosions boomed from the plane’s left side, starting a sequence that ended with one woman dead, seven people injured and an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport.
Something in the engine broke apart midair and burst through the Boeing 737-700’s window, passengers said. The shattered window partially sucked a woman out of the plane as passengers struggled to pull her back
Article source: https://wgno.com/2018/04/18/this-wasnt-the-first-time-a-southwest-jet-lost-a-fan-blade-in-its-engine/