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Woman Reportedly Dies After Partially Sucked Out Of Smashed Window Of Southwest Airline Flight At 32,000 Feet

By Roz Zurko
Published on: 08:52 PST, Apr 17, 2018

A Southwest Airlines jet engine reportedly “shredded” shortly after takeoff, sending shrapnel flying into the aircraft and causing a hole in the plane’s fuselage. One woman has died after suffering a head injury when she was partially sucked out of the plane through a broken window, according to the Press of Atlantic City.

The shrapnel smashed at least one window, according to the FAA. The impact of the shrapnel was so severe that it imploded a window, depressurizing the cabin. It was at that moment when an unidentified woman was “partially sucked out of the plane” through that broken window. According to News Talk ZB, the plane was traveling at 32,000 feet at the time of this horrendous event.

According to Fox News 13, frightened passengers attempted to pull the woman back in from that broken window to safety, which they were able to do. They also reported there was “blood everywhere” as they attempted to save her. The passenger was in critical condition but later died from a serious head injury, which is also reported in the live coverage on Fox News today. The plane made an emergency landing in Philadelphia Tuesday afternoon.

According to NBC Philadelphia, the pilot radioed ahead to the air traffic controllers requesting that paramedics meet the plane upon landing to help the passengers who were injured in this midflight event. The pilot’s conversation with the air traffic control tower was chilling to hear.

The pilot, who has yet to be identified, asked for the paramedics to meet the plane and tells the tower, “We have part of the aircraft missing.”

When the tower asks if there was a fire onboard the plane, the pilot answers, “No, it’s not on fire but part of it’s missing. They said there is a hole and someone went out.”

The plane touched down in an emergency landing at 11:20 a.m. EST. at Philadelphia International Airport on Tuesday. The flight had just departed from New York’s LaGuardia Airport with 149 people on board, which includes 144 passengers and five crew members. A ground stop was put in place as crews at the airport responded.

An air traffic controller relayed to the ground crew of firefighters that there’s “a hole in the side of the aircraft.” This is in addition to “at least one smashed window,” reports NBC Philadelphia. The photos posted online from the passengers on this flight show the “engine inlet was shredded” and the “metal is bent outward.” The window behind the left wing had a missing pane, which was the window passengers reported was smashed when it was hit with shrapnel.

According to a press conference from Philadelphia at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, the “aircraft did experience some damage” to the fuselage and parts of a wing. Adam Thiel, who is the Philadelphia Fire commissioner, said it is his understanding that the passengers on board that flight did some “pretty amazing things” under some challenging conditions. The focus right now is on the passengers at this point, reported Thiel at the press conference carried live on Fox News. Along with one death, several injuries were also reported from the shrapnel that smashed through the passenger cabin of this Southwest Airlines flight.

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