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A5
U.S. NEWS Thursday 3 May 2018

Passengers heard window

popping on Southwest plane

By MARK GILLISPIE and DA- passengers told The Asso- those couple of rows," he
VID PORTER ciated Press that the crew said.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Pas- quickly checked the win- The timing of the incident
sengers on a Southwest dow near an emergency could hardly be worse for
Airlines plane first heard a exit and handled the situa- Dallas-based Southwest,
loud pop and then scurried tion smoothly. the nation's fourth-biggest
away when they saw a jag- "People just started scat- airline. Airline executives
ged crack in a window that tering," said Upshaw, who said last week they have
forced the jet to land in added there was no yelling seen ticket sales slow since
Cleveland on Wednesday. or screaming. "We didn't the April 17 engine failure
Some on board immedi- panic." than sent debris flying into
ately thought back to just Dallas-based Southwest a plane, breaking a win-
two weeks ago when a said that the plane was dow and killing a passen-
jet engine blew apart and diverted to examine dam- ger, 43-year-old Jennifer
broke a window, leading age to one of the three lay- Riordan of Albuquerque,
to a woman being par- ers in the window, but didn't New Mexico. Southwest es-
tially sucked out and killed immediately release details timates the drop in sales will
aboard another Southwest on how it was broken. Pho- cost it between $50 million
flight. tos taken by passengers and $100 million.
"It made you nervous be- and posted on social me- Robert Mann, an airline A crack is seen on a window of Southwest Airlines Flight 957
cause something like this dia showed one window consultant and former after an abrupt landing in Cleveland, Wednesday, May 2, 2018.
just happened," said pas- with a large, jagged crack. American Airlines execu- Associated Press
senger Paul Upshaw of Chi- Southwest Airlines spokes- tive, said windows are peri-
cago, who was about two woman Brandy King said odically polished to remove
seats from the window. "We the plane never lost cabin crazing, the formation of
didn't know if it was going pressure — which would tiny cracks from exposure
to crack open." have triggered oxygen to chemicals and the sun's
There were no reports masks to drop down for rays. He said he couldn't
of injuries after Flight 957 passengers — and that the recall a similar incident
heading from Chicago to pilots did not declare an caused by crazing and
New Jersey landed safely emergency before land- that the pilots were right to
Wednesday after mak- ing. make a quick landing.
ing an abrupt turn toward There were no other me- The window on the flight
Cleveland while over Lake chanical problems with that landed in Philadel-
Erie, according to track- the Boeing 737, which was phia blew out after being
ing data from FlightAware. taken out of service, King hit by a loose engine part.
com. said. The plane was built in Riordan died of injuries suf-
Some of the plane's 76 1998, and King said it has fered after she was partially
flown about 40,000 "cycles" sucked out.
or flights, "but the dam- After the Philadelphia
aged window had been emergency landing, the
previously replaced and Federal Aviation Admin-
continues to receive regu- istration ordered inspec-
lar checks as part of our tions of more jet engines.
maintenance program." The National Transportation
She said it was inspected Safety Board believes one
last month. of the blades snapped on
Rich Robinson, a sheriff's the Southwest flight, hurling
deputy from Sandwich, Illi- debris that broke a window.
nois, said when the window Boeing declined to identify
cracked, everybody in that the supplier that manufac-
area hit the button for the tured the windows on its
flight attendant. 737-700s, the model in-
"She went running back volved in Wednesday's inci-
right away, saw it, and ev- dent and last month's fatal
erybody cleared out from accident.q