Southwest jet engine explosion bears metal weakness signs: US

Bloomberg

Southwest Airlines Co. is stepping up inspections on its jet fleet after investigators said they discovered evidence of metal fatigue on an engine that exploded on April 17, sending shrapnel into the plane and killing a passenger seated near a window.
The woman was partly sucked out of the plane carrying 149 people as it flew about 32,500 feet above Pennsylvania, according to passenger accounts and the National Transportation Safety Board. The death was the first fatality on a US-registered airline in more than nine years.
The plane, a Boeing Co. 737-700 bound for Dallas from New York’s LaGuardia airport, made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport shortly after 11 am on April 17.
Safety Board investigators found indications of metal fatigue, an area of weakness caused by repeated bending, where a fan blade on the engine was missing, NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said in a briefing. Sumwalt cautioned that the information was preliminary.
Southwest CEO Gary Kelly told the NTSB that the company would begin additional inspections of its engines, Sumwalt said.
The pilots brought the plane down promptly, landing at a higher speed than usual to ensure they could control the plane, Sumwalt added.
“I did listen to the aircraft control communications, and it certainly sounded to me like they did an excellent job,” Sumwalt said. “From a fellow airline pilot, my hat’s certainly off to them.” Sumwalt flew the 737 and other aircraft during a career as a pilot. The plane was powered by CFM56-7B engines, which are made by CFM International Inc., a joint venture between General Electric Co. and France’s Safran SA. CFM, the sole supplier of engines for 737-700 planes, said it has sent technical representatives to examine the plane.
The Associated Press identified the woman who was killed as Jennifer Riordan, a vice president of community relations for Wells Fargo & Co. in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Seven people suffered minor injuries.
She was nearly sucked out of the cabin as it decompressed at high altitude and other passengers had to pull her back into the plane as it flew at hundreds of miles an hour, according to passenger accounts.
A man in a cowboy hat rushed forward a few rows “to grab that lady to pull her back in,” Alfred Tumlinson, of Corpus Christi, Texas, told the AP. “She was out of the plane. He couldn’t do it by himself, so another gentleman came over and helped to get her back in the plane, and they got her.”
One of the Southwest pilots radioed to air-traffic control during the emergency that “someone went out”, according to a recording on the LiveATC.net website. “This is a sad day,” Southwest’s Kelly said. “On behalf of the whole Southwest family, I want to extend our deepest sympathies to the family and loved ones of our deceased customer.” As the cabin suddenly lost pressure, flight attendants began crying, one passenger, Marty Martinez, CEO of Social Revolt digital marketing in Dallas, said.
“When we saw that they started crying, of course we thought we were in a really bad place. We were going down,” Martinez said. The death shattered an unprecedented string of more than nine years without an accident-related fatality on a US passenger airline. Reports of shrapnel shattering a window suggest that the engine broke apart in what is known as an “uncontained” failure.
US regulations require engines to be covered in tough casings designed to prevent metal from flying into fuel tanks and passenger areas if an engine breaks apart.