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Southwest Airlines Engine Failure Results In First Fatality On US Airline In 9 Years (heavy.com)
schwit1 shares a report from Heavy: Tammie Jo Shults is the pilot who bravely flew Southwest Flight 1380 to safety after part of its left engine ripped off, damaging a window and nearly sucking a woman out of the plane. The flight was en route to Dallas Love airport from New York City, and had to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia. Shults, 56, kept her cool during an incredibly intense situation, audio from her conversation with air traffic controllers reveals, while many passengers posted on social media that they were scared these were their last moments. She, with the help of the co-pilot and the rest of the crew, landed the plane safely. The NTSB reported that there was one fatality out of 143 passengers on board. Some passengers said that someone had a heart attack during the flight, but it's not yet known if this was the fatality reported by the NTSB. The woman who died has been identified by KOAT-TV as Jennifer Riordan, 43, of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Tammie Jo Shults is the pilot who bravely flew Southwest Flight 1380 to safety after part of its left engine ripped off
So what would have been the cowardly variant? Crashing the plane?
Adjectives have meaning. I mean, I'm glad that part of its left engine hasn't "tragically" ripped off since nowadays everything unfortunate or awful is "tragic". But what the fuck is "brave" about saving your beans? "In an extraordinary display of skills, presence of mind and composure": yeah.
There are a fuckload of reasons to admire her feat. Braveness isn't one.
When you have been on a flight with *REAL* turbulence; the type where if you are not seated and wearing a belt you are going to be smashed like a rag doll off the ceiling and couple of seconds later the floor of the plane you wear your seat belt on a plane for every second it is possible to do so.
Perhaps living in europe where wearing seat belts are compulsory by law in a car we are more used to wearing restraining belts for long periods of time.
Regardless not wearing a seat belt while seated on a plane is a pointless risk to take in my view.
Eh, "bravely" means exactly what we get from hearing the pilot in her interaction with air traffic control. According to the dictionary brave is someone: ready to face and endure danger or pain; showing courage. So, she definitely seemed ready and showed courage (presence of mind and composure as you yourself say) in the face of danger.
Brave does not mean removing the headphone jack from a phone ("dick move" is more appropriate), brave does not mean jumping in the flames for fun ("reckless" is more appropriate).
I was impressed by that audio, the air traffic guy seemed much more upset when he started hearing about parts of the plane missing etc than the pilot. If she was not brave, her voice would either start braking or show panick, and the outcome of the ordeal might not have been as favorable for the passengers.
Boeing does not make engines. They choose another manufacturer at time of order. It’s probably GE, RR, or P&W.
I would say that five fan blade failures on an engine is very unusual.
As a turbine engineer, I disagree. That is an excellent track record considering that the air ingested by the engine is unfiltered and damage may occur between major inspection intervals that are not picked up by the engine instrumentation or visual inspection.
Land-based engines are generally built more robustly (since weight is not a concern), have extensive air filtration systems, similar inspection periods, less abuse (# of start/stop cycles per day), and yet they fail at a higher rate than this. 5 failures is a very low rate considering the fleet operating hours.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
You're using an extreme example.
That's how we pass crazy and extreme laws. "If it save just one kids life..."
Ex-Navy F-18 pilot.
Nothing teachers you about staying calm like landing on a pitching deck at night...in the rain and high winds.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Often is right. That makes two fan blade detachments on this model of engine in less than two years. And it is also the second such uncontained engine failure to puncture the body of the plane while failing, though the bits didn't make it all the way into the cabin the first time. IMO, that really should not happen, much less twice.
Call me cynical, but the more news stories I see remarking about the engine's safety record, the more concerned I become. Subjectively, it feels like we're seeing a lot more catastrophic loss of cowling lately than we used to. Maybe that's just the 24-hour news cycle skewing my perception, but I think it would be interesting to see if the materials involved have changed significantly over the last decade or two, and if that might be a contributing factor.
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