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SWA seems to be having a rough go of it lately


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2 hours ago, PvilleStang said:

 

 

Sorry about the crappy vid, but I saw this the other day BEFORE the SWA incident, and the captain survived 20 minutes hanging out of the front windshield, so anything is possible.

There's an hour-long Air Disasters episode on this. Unfuckingbelievable!

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Yeah I remember seeing that episode.  I think he survived largely due to the fact that 1) they were only in the air for 10 mins. and had only gotten to 17,000 feet; 2) the co-pilot quickly slowed and descended (also due to needing to give the passengers air, since the pressurization failed), and 3) he was able to land within 20 minutes.  Even so, he was almost killed due to exposure, lack of air, and the continued banging of his head into the plane.   The wind at him was "only" over 300 mph(!)  The flight attendant who hung onto him from inside also suffered frostbite.

Even so, a series of "fortunate" situations/events lined up so he could be safe.  I would imagine this poor woman blacked out within a minute of being thrown out the window and I doubt survival at 550 mph and 32,00 feet  a good 45 minutes after takeoff is much beyond remotely likely.

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52 minutes ago, phdhorn said:

Yeah I remember seeing that episode.  I think he survived largely due to the fact that 1) they were only in the air for 10 mins. and had only gotten to 17,000 feet; 2) the co-pilot quickly slowed and descended (also due to needing to give the passengers air, since the pressurization failed), and 3) he was able to land within 20 minutes.  Even so, he was almost killed due to exposure, lack of air, and the continued banging of his head into the plane.   The wind at him was "only" over 300 mph(!)  The flight attendant who hung onto him from inside also suffered frostbite.

Even so, a series of "fortunate" situations/events lined up so he could be safe.  I would imagine this poor woman blacked out within a minute of being thrown out the window and I doubt survival at 550 mph and 32,00 feet  a good 45 minutes after takeoff is much beyond remotely likely.

I wonder if she was killed the moment she caught jet engine parts right in the side of the head. I can't imagine she was conscious as she was being sucked toward and possibly partially out of the open window.

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54 minutes ago, C-Man said:

I wonder if she was killed the moment she caught jet engine parts right in the side of the head. I can't imagine she was conscious as she was being sucked toward and possibly partially out of the open window.

That's my guess.  Shrapnel that went through the window hit her in the head, and she was gone before she went out the window.  Which would be merciful.

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2 hours ago, C-Man said:

I wonder if she was killed the moment she caught jet engine parts right in the side of the head. I can't imagine she was conscious as she was being sucked toward and possibly partially out of the open window.

Yeah, actually I heard tonight the coroner in Philly said she was killed due to blunt shock trauma.  Means either the blade and/or some pieces of engine hit her and/or she was getting her head slammed against the plane while hanging outside.

Horrible.

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On 4/17/2018 at 6:30 PM, Brisketexan said:

That's it.  Anyone with a modicum of training can take off, fly, and land a fully-functioning plane in bluebird weather.

That ain't what I want to pay my pilot for.  I want the SOB with icewater in his (or her) veins, who can make split-second decisions in a crisis, keep their cool the whole time, do complex math in their head while flying the plane so as to evaluate alternatives, and knows how to fly anything from a busted cropduster to a state-of-the-art Boeing.  In short, give me someone with military training, in most cases.

Give me this gal.  Give me Sully.  Give me the pilot of United 232 in Sioux City.

Thank you Brisket.  The Captain is a former Top Gun pilot.  I want someone who has been upside down and backwards in a flat spin, in the dark, no moon, and a busted artificial horizon.  Believe it or not, that is a recoverable situation with just a single engine and functioning control surfaces and more than 4000 agl.

The public would be amazed at how often the Right Stuff is applied in commercial aviation.  I know first hand.  I'm the son of a man who twice in a 32-year career had to apply it.

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On 4/17/2018 at 6:34 PM, Celery Man said:

I heard Sully talk recently and part of his thing about pilots/safety was making decades of deposits until the crucial time comes for that one big withdrawal (of all your training/knowledge/instinct/etc).

 

yup.  dad's commercial incept date was 14 march 69, retirement was 31 march 2001.  that's 11705 days.

on 2 of those days, on takeoff in Savannah in 1982, and over Idaho Falls, Southern Idaho and Salt Lake City in 1989, everything he learned in the air force insured a couple hundred people lived the rest of their destined lives.

the other 11703 days he was the jag we all take for granted.

the next time you're on a flight and the landing is like grease and feathers, poke your head in the cockpit, ask whose leg it was, say thanks for the skillz.

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While it's possible that a piece of the blade hit her in the head, it's also highly speculative.  If we want to get all Kevin Costner magic bullet, also not a straight line from the engine through the window to her head.

 

There were a few early reports that she was struck with shrapnel, but most of the seven or eight articles I just checked out pretty much all look something like this.

 

With no apparent warning, the plane’s left engine exploded after one of its fan blades broke off. A gust of shrapnel blew out a window, partly sucking one passenger in Row 14 headfirst into the sky. Oxygen masks dropped down and the plane plunged thousands of feet in a minute.
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21 hours ago, BearSchlong said:

Every single time I sit next directly next to the compressor blades of those engines on a WN 737 I look over and think "naw, no way something could ever happen, surely they've engineered containment for something like that right??"

Never again.

Sell. Me. A. Aisleseat.

fhZ6TEUG_t.jpg

notice the solid fuselage on the right leg of the 'h' and the left side of the 'w'.  most twins have this feature, where there are no windows adjacent to the compressor blades.

look at port side of this bird.  no visible damage at all.  ms. riordan drew a bad hand as it appears the only piece of debris that hit the fuselage hit her window.

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1 hour ago, Celery Man said:

While it's possible that a piece of the blade hit her in the head, it's also highly speculative.  If we want to get all Kevin Costner magic bullet, also not a straight line from the engine through the window to her head.

At 500 knots, unless there was a 2nd explosive event, she was not hit with any engine debris.

What she was hit with was 500 knots of air.  Someone above speculated she couldn't empty her lungs.

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On 4/17/2018 at 10:24 PM, Richter said:

I had a female pilot on Monday on the way out here to DC.  Fly SW a lot and don’t remember a female pilot before.

LUV was very progressive in this area.  IIRC Frontier 1 set all of the first milestones (woman, black man, black woman), northwest was the most progressive trunk/flag carrier, but LUV began hiring all minorities in numbers in the early 80s and promoted them to the left seat faster than any one else too.

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25 minutes ago, Hagbard Celine said:

fhZ6TEUG_t.jpg

notice the solid fuselage on the right leg of the 'h' and the left side of the 'w'.  most twins have this feature, where there are no windows adjacent to the compressor blades.

look at port side of this bird.  no visible damage at all.  ms. riordan drew a bad hand as it appears the only piece of debris that hit the fuselage hit her window.

I can't tell which window is blown out in that pic. Lil' help?

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All joking aside, and assuming it turns out to be either a freak thing, a mx mistake, or a manufacturing defect, and not losing track of the tragedy of it, it's... good for the industry or whatever that the pilot who "saved the day" (I'm sure we'll find out more about that) is a woman.  I was just talking with a woman who said that even recently, she got several comments about how women don't belong in the left seat while taking basic pilot training.

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ah, I missed the early reports that that had occurred


I believe that those reports were incorrect. Everything I’ve read since then indicates that your brief assessment is more accurate. This morning a passenger that performed CPR on the now deceased passenger said that she had severe trauma to her head, arms, snd torso. She also stated that the woman was still strapped in her seat belt. Another passenger followed up with the same account. Neither indicated that she had been struck by engine debris.

We may eventually find out otherwise, but right now it looks like the debris just popped the window and she was instantly sucked out and severely traumatized.

Regardless, this is an absolute nightmare situation.
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10 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

fhZ6TEUG_t.jpg

notice the solid fuselage on the right leg of the 'h' and the left side of the 'w'.  most twins have this feature, where there are no windows adjacent to the compressor blades.

look at port side of this bird.  no visible damage at all.  ms. riordan drew a bad hand as it appears the only piece of debris that hit the fuselage hit her window.

On the right side, the sections of solid fuselage are different from the left side.  Why is that?

Left - 2 sections, between W and E, and between E and S:

maxresdefault.jpg

Right - only 1 section, across the O (I assume this is different from your picture because they are different 737 variants):

5D3_8121-1200edited.jpg

 

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Just now, TwiceHorn said:

With the above, one possibility is simply that "Southwest" is painted further aft than in the other (begins two windows aft of the front door instead of one).

That’s a different model of 737. The -800 pictures above is much longer than the -700 involved in the engine failure incident. 

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15 minutes ago, Bobby_Batronic said:

That’s a different model of 737. The -800 pictures above is much longer than the -700 involved in the engine failure incident. 

Yes I get that but the R vs L differences are consistent across the different 737 variants that I can tell - on the right side, you have one section of solid fuselage (one window missing) and on the left side, you have 2 sections of solid fuselage (2 windows missing). 

Why is that? I would think it would be symmetrical but it's not.

Edit: Nevermind, it's not consistent across variants. I'm an idiot.

Edited by dieucla98
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My sister-in-law knew her pretty well and worked on some charity projects with her while they were both pregnant with daughters.  They both named the girls the same name.  The two girls recently played on the same volleyball team.  Incredibly nice lady and an awesome mother.  My SIL is pretty shaken up.  Horrible situation.

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Quote

With no apparent warning, the plane’s left engine exploded after one of its fan blades broke off. A gust of shrapnel blew out a window, partly sucking one passenger in Row 14 headfirst into the sky. Oxygen masks dropped down and the plane plunged thousands of feet in a minute.

Thousands of feet in a minute?  That sounds scary!

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6 hours ago, Texas_Rocks said:

 


I believe that those reports were incorrect. Everything I’ve read since then indicates that your brief assessment is more accurate. This morning a passenger that performed CPR on the now deceased passenger said that she had severe trauma to her head, arms, snd torso. She also stated that the woman was still strapped in her seat belt. Another passenger followed up with the same account. Neither indicated that she had been struck by engine debris.

We may eventually find out otherwise, but right now it looks like the debris just popped the window and she was instantly sucked out and severely traumatized.

Regardless, this is an absolute nightmare situation.

 

She was strapped in when this happened?? 

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3 hours ago, DaysOff said:

My theory is SWA does more cycles, shorter segments, and operates from some short runways. More full thrust takeoffs than most operators of the 737. That has to put extra stress on those blades. Just my theory.

That's similar to at least part of what was attributed to the Aloha incident.  Lots of short interisland flights cause more stress.

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16 hours ago, Celery Man said:

All joking aside, and assuming it turns out to be either a freak thing, a mx mistake, or a manufacturing defect, and not losing track of the tragedy of it, it's... good for the industry or whatever that the pilot who "saved the day" (I'm sure we'll find out more about that) is a woman.  I was just talking with a woman who said that even recently, she got several comments about how women don't belong in the left seat while taking basic pilot training.

It's good for women in general.  Women doctors, lawyers, and in every other profession. 

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3 minutes ago, woohorn said:

No offense, but...

Did pilot do much more than drop altitude and land a 99% whole (ha) plane?

No quite Sully territory IYAM.

Not even close to Sully but she did a good job.  Compound emergencies are never simple. Prioritize and attack.  I am sure her Navy training helped out greatly.  

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