Listen to the moment Southwest 1380 tells air traffic control someone was sucked out of the plane
A Southwest Airlines flight was forced to make a perilous emergency landing on Tuesday when a piece of its engine broke off, shattered a window, and caused a passenger to be partially sucked out of the cabin.
Here's audio of the call between the Southwest Airlines 1380 pilot and air traffic control, edited for length and clarity. The audio was downloaded from LiveATC.net. The pilot stays remarkably calm throughout the harrowing incident.
The pilot notes in the audio that the plane wasn't on fire, however, there was only one engine functioning in what was supposed to be a twin engine plane. NBC reports that fire department officials doused a small fire on site.
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"Yeah, we have a part of the aircraft missing too, we're gonna need to slow down a bit," the pilot says.
In one of the most bizarre parts of the clip, the pilot explains that someone "went out" of a hole in the plane around 3:52.
Pilot: "Okay, could you have the medical meet us there on the runway as well? We've got injured passengers.
Air Traffic Control: "Injured passengers, okay, and is your airplane physically on fire?"
Pilot: "No, it's not on fire, but part of it's missing. They said there's a hole, and uh, someone went out."
Air Traffic Control: "I'm sorry, you said there's a hole and somebody went out?"
According to NBC Philadelphia, the woman who was sucked through the window was pulled back in by other passengers, covered in blood. A few passengers administered CPR.
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The National Transportation Safety Board and Southwest Airlines said one passenger died because of the incident. TV station KOAT identified the victim as Albuquerque resident Jennifer Riordan, whose children's school sent out a community email asking for prayers in wake of her passing. Officials have not confirmed whether Riordan was the woman who was sucked out of the plane.
This is the first accident-related passenger death in the United States in nine years, according to Quartz.
A statement from Southwest Airlines posted on Twitter says, "Safety is always our top priority at Southwest Airlines, and we are working diligently to support the Customers and Crews at this time."
