“Blood everywhere”: Flight makes emergency landing in Philly – live updates

FAN Editor

PHILADELPHIA — A Southwest Airlines jet made an emergency landing at Philadelphia’s airport Tuesday with part of the covering from its left engine ripped off and a window damaged. Neither the airline nor the Federal Aviation Administration explained what went wrong.

Passenger Marty Martinez told CBSN from the plane that a woman was injured and was taken off the plane.

“There was blood everywhere,” Martinez told CBSN’s Anne-Marie Green.

Details on the passenger’s condition weren’t immediately available.

Southwest said there were 143 passengers and five crew members onboard the Boeing 737, which was headed from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Dallas’ Love Field. Passengers were seen walking off the plane onto the tarmac at the airport after landing around 11:20 a.m.

The Philadelphia airport tweeted that Flight 1380 “landed safely at PHL and passengers are being brought into the terminal.” The airport said flights were continuing to depart from Philadelphia and that the FAA had lifted a ground stop for planes at other airports waiting to depart for Philadelphia.

The FAA said that the plane landed after the crew reported damage to one of the plane’s engines, along with the fuselage and at least one window.

Martinez did a brief Facebook Live posting while wearing an oxygen mask. He posted, “Something is wrong with our plane! It appears we are going down! Emergency landing!! Southwest flight from NYC to Dallas!!”

Martinez told CBSN that he thought he was recording his “last moments.”

After the plane landed, he posted photos of a damaged window near the engine.

Flight 1380 From NYC to Dallas crash landed in Philly. Engine exploded in the air and blew open window 3 seats away from…

Posted by Marty Martinez on Tuesday, April 17, 2018

News helicopter footage showed damage to the left engine and the tarmac covered with firefighting foam, although there were no signs of flames or smoke.

Tracking data from FlightAware.com shows the flight was heading west over New York’s southern tier when it abruptly turned toward Philadelphia.

Southwest has about 700 planes, all of them 737s, including more than 500 737-700s like the one involved in Tuesday’s emergency landing.

It is the world’s largest operator of the 737. The Boeing 737 is the best-selling jetliner in the world and has a good safety record.

Investigators are likely to take apart the failed engine from Tuesday’s plane and examine maintenance records as they try to piece together the cause of the explosion.

CBS News transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave reports the flight was powered by CFM engines. An official told CBS News that CFM has sent representatives to the scene to support the investigation.

The engine failure was reminiscent of a similar event on a Southwest Boeing 737-700 jet in August 2016 as it flew from New Orleans to Orlando, Florida.

Shrapnel from the engine left a 5-by-16-inch hole just above the wing. Passenger oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling. Pilots landed the plane safely in Pensacola, Florida.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board said one of the engine’s fan blades broke off from the hub during the flight. The broken edge of the blade showed crack lines consistent with metal fatigue.

The NTSB was sending a go-team to the airport in Philadelphia to investigate and planned a 3 p.m. news conference.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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