Southwest Airlines Emergency Landing at PHL

Statistically, even considering this event, it probably still is.

 

First passenger.
In '05 SW plane slid off a runway on ice and killed a child in a car on the street.
Those are the only two.

 

On the business channel, they said there were 13,400 or so of these CFM-56 engines in use...globally...moving millons of people. This is one of those "freak" episodes involving the blade under metal fatigue. I am sure the do routine maintenance but to check for stress fractures or metal fatigue on each blade will involve a competely different process.

 

This is actually second pax death on a swa flight. First one got his ass beat to death by other pax as he rushed and broke into the cockpit (8/11/2000). Flight 1763.

This is the third swa-related fatality including Midway slide as you pointed out.

 

I wonder where the blade landed?

I assume it must be in an unpopulated area, unless I missed that it was found somewhere.

 

Eastern Pennsylvania... prolly will never be found, it's pretty small.

 

That's not unusual... look at the chart, it's about the same rate as the climb is.

 

The best engine in the world will eventually fail if it isn't properly maintained or checked. The blade on this engine failed from metal fatigue that should have been identified with a periodic thorough ultra sound inspection. One can see damage quite a ways outboard on the leading edge slats and it is logical that the shrapnel flew up over the wing and hit the fuselage and the window that blew out.

 

I wonder if the shrapnel that broke the window hit the woman and that was where the head injury came from?
Very sad.

 

No different than the UAL blade separation back in Feb.
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=206147

 

Today the NTSB spokes person said

22 minutes from the incident to the landing
the landing was 190 knots at 5 degree flaps vs around 160 knots and 20 degree flaps normally under this load
Severe vibration on the airframe accorded the entire time
the plane banked at 45 degrees at the time of the incident (that must has scared the crap out of everyone on board) but the pilots righted it quickly

 

Lots of yaw/roll when the thrust stops on one side and the drag increases greatly at the same time.

 

We never land at 160 knots and 20 degrees of flaps. We don’t even have 20 degrees of flaps.

 

Here is the actual video

You are correct. I repeated it incorrectly as I saw it the news today. He said Flaps 5 instead of flaps 30. I said it as "degrees" so you are correct.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10155786302687098

Also the bank was 41 and not 45 as I stated.

 

Yea Flap 5 is the normal single engine landing flap.

 

I'm sure SWA followed maintenance on it as required without skimping so I don't think it really was preventable. Unless one thinks more frequent checks outside of what is recommended should be performed...I wouldn't hold them or anyone up to that standard. As long as they did what was recommended, it was just bad luck it happened to one of their planes and not a competing airline. If they skipped maintenance checks that led to this...they should pay.

 

I was told by a Boeing person that SWA has maintenance done in Mexico.

 

Don't believe everything you hear. Some maintenance is outsourced but they have something like 16 repair stations.

 

They do outsource maintenance to El Salvadore along with many other airlines.

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113877784

Delta does it to Mexico from what I've read.

http://www.airlineforums.com/threads/delta-air-lines-to-build-heavy-maintenance-facility-in-queretaro-mexico.54206/

 

I edited my post. Yes, but they also have a very large maintenance network here in the US.

 

That is correct. Houston and Dallas are big maintenance areas. I know there are different levels of maintenance performed, but I don't know where those are done and don't want to speculate.

I really hope for the families' sake (7 people injured too?) that everything was done properly and was unavoidable based on current required checks. I hope so too so I can fly with less worry as I do fly SWA a lot.

 

For what it's worth, I do work for SWA. It is my preferred airline by a long shot.

 

I’ve never heard of a single crew taking a plane to El Salvador for maintenance. Not saying it hasn’t happened but I’m sure I would have heard about it at some point. Typically maintenance contractors like that would be paint jobs.

 

https://www.faa.gov/news/press_releases/news_story.cfm?newsId=19334

That is from 2015.

 

Interesting, I’m going to ask a maintenance guy in Dallas tomorrow exactly how much and what is done outside the US.