Catastrophic engine failure on a Southwest Airlines flight from New York to Dallas killed a mother-of-two and forced an emergency landing Tuesday, the first fatal incident in US commercial aviation for nearly a decade.
The Boeing 737-700 took off without incident but minutes into the flight, passengers heard an explosion in the left engine, which sent shrapnel flying through the window, shattering the glass and leading oxygen masks to drop, witnesses said.
“We believe there were parts coming out of this engine,” Robert Sumwalt, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, told a news conference, confirming engine failure but no fire. “There is one fatality,” Sumwalt said.
The person killed was later revealed to be Jennifer Riordan, a 43-year-old bank executive and mother-of-two from Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to officials from her hometown and state as well…
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