Coroner reveals Southwest jet victim died from blunt impact

The Wells Fargo bank executive who died on a Southwest jet after its engine blew at 32,500 feet was killed by blunt impact trauma to the head, neck and torso, according to the coroner.

Jennifer Riordan, 43, was killed and seven others injured on Tuesday after the twin-engine 737 – heading from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Dallas – was showered in shrapnel from a blown engine. 

Riordan’s upper body was sucked out of a window before being pulled back by passengers before registered school nurse Peggy Phillips tried to save her by performing CPR.

James Garrow, of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, said on Wednesday evening that her death had been ruled accidental by the coroner. 

Federal investigators are still trying to figure out how the window came out of the plane. 

National Transportation Safety Board chairman Robert Sumwalt said Riordan, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, was wearing a seatbelt and sitting next to the window.

The freak accident caused even more chaos on the already frantic flight but Phillips, firefighter Andrew Needum and Tim McGinty, a ranch hand who was traveling with his wife, snapped into action to try to save Riordan. 

McGinty pulled her back into her seat with Needum’s help. Then he and Phillips began performing CPR as McGinty, who was dressed in a cowboy hat, tried to cover the hole.  

‘The window had broken and the suction, the negative pressure, had pulled her outside the plane partially.

‘These two wonderful men the EMT and a passenger managed to get her back inside the plane and we lay her down and we started CPR,’ Phillips told ABC.

So far, investigators have been able to determine that a fan blade was missing from the CFM56 engine, and may have become separated due to metal fatigue, which happens when there is a build up of small cracks on a metal surface.

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A harrowing photograph taken in the air shows the exposed, mangled engine after it exploded. The pilot flew like this for 12 minutes until she made her emergency landing 

Riordan’s upper body was sucked out of this window before being pulled back by passengers before registered school nurse Peggy Phillips tried to save her by performing CPR 

Ranch hand Tim McGinty (left with nurse Peggy Phillips hours later once they had arrived in Dallas) ran over first to pull Riordan back into the aircraft but could not manage it alone.  Firefighter Andrew Needum (right with McGinty), jumped in to help him pull her back in. Once she was inside the aircraft, Needum and Phillips performed CPR until the plane made an emergency landing 

McGinty was sitting across the aisle, several rows ahead of Riordan when he saw half of her body get sucked out of the window. 

He rushed over to pull her back in but could not manage alone because the pressure was so strong. 

‘We couldn’t pull her in alone… a buddy helped and we got her back in. 

‘They tried to resuscitate her and the crew and the pilot, they got it landed, somehow,’ he said in a state of shock after arriving at Dallas Airport later on Tuesday. Needum was traveling with his young son. 

All three of them abandoned her own oxygen mask to try to help the woman. Despite their efforts, Riordan was pronounced dead at a Philadelphia hospital after the plane made an emergency landing and she was taken away.

Phillips did not go into graphic detail about her injuries but tried to offer some idea of the drastic extent of them.

‘If you can possibly imagine going through the window of an airplane at about 600mph, and hitting either the fuselage or the wing with your body, with your face…I can probably tell you that there was significant trauma to the body.

‘Significant head trauma, facial trauma,’ she said.

The woman said she and the other 142 passengers thought they were going to die when the engine exploded, causing a loud noise which immediately caused the Boeing 737-700 to shake and rattle.

‘All of us thought this might be it. Shortly after take-off we heard a loud noise and the plane started shaking like nothing I’ve ever experienced before.

‘It sounded like the plane was coming apart. It was terrifying,’ she said. 

Phillips shunned glory, hailing others who tried to help as ‘heroes’.

‘Andrew and I ran the CPR, he was just the most courageous young man. We had a lot of, I don’t consider myself a hero by any stretch, but there were heroes on that plane. I was just doing my job. Andrew was doing his job. 

‘I just did what I do. I did what needed to be done, what any registered nurse would do, ‘she said. 

Sherri Sears, who was sitting next to McGinty and his wife, said she did not look at the woman’s injuries once she had been pulled back inside but confirmed that ‘half’ of her body had been sucked out.  

The engine covering which flew off the plane when it exploded was found in Penn Township, Berks County, in a field 67 miles from where the plane landed

Pennsylvania Game Commission employees are pictured recovering the piece of shattered aircraft on Wednesday 

Investigators are working to determine how the engine exploded. A missing fan blade was also found 70 miles from Philadelphia Airport 

Workers recovered the piece of metal carefully with gloves on and will hand it over to investigators

McGinty’s wife Kristin shared her story of what happened on social media. 

‘Tim and Andrew pulled Jennifer back into our aircraft as it descended and Peggy gave CPR. 

‘They are all heroes who put others before themselves today. My husband lives his life for others every day, and today was such a strong reminder that life is so precious and that there are good people all around us. 

‘God bless them all and we thank God for his care in landing our plane. Southwest did a great job in what was a horrific accident. 

‘I pray for Jennifer’s family as they mourn their loss and I thank God for His provisions and our safety,’ she wrote on Facebook. 

After the plane landed in Philadelphia, Phillips boarded another flight to take her back to Dallas. 

She took a picture with McGinty, her new friend, in the airport before they parted ways.

Riordan (pictured with her husband) was rushed to hospital immediately after the flight from New York to Dallas made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport at 11.27am, but authorities confirmed she later died. Her relatives paid tribute to her on Wednesday as the ‘bedrock’ of their family

McGinty and Phillips both shunned glory as they gave interviews. Phillips gave her thoughts to the victim’s family and McGinty was in a state of shock at how the skilled pilot was able to land the plane

‘The whole thing was a little surreal. This morning waking up, I can’t say that I slept very well last night and I am sure most passengers did not sleep very well last night. 

‘I am terribly, terribly sorry for the family. My heart goes out to them but I am so proud of my fellow passengers and the flight crew and the pilot,’ she said. 

Marty Martinez, who went on Facebook Live as the plane was going down, described his decision to reach for his laptop and buy WiFi in what he thought were his last minutes alive. 

‘All I could think of in that moment was I need to communicate with my loved ones. It was just very instinctual for me to think to get WiFi.

‘As everyone was reaching for their oxygen masks, I was reaching for my laptop. I’m frantically looking for my credit card an trying to punch in my credit card details. 

‘I just thought how can I reach people on mass. I immediately thought of a Facebook live. I thought if these are my last few moments on earth, I want people to know what happened,’ he said.

Riordan was an executive for the bank Wells Fargo and was on her way home from a business trip when she died.  

Once back on another plane to Dallas, McGinty, his wife and Sherri Sears, who was sitting next to them, all held hands as they landed 

She was rushed to hospital immediately after Shults took the plane into a sharp descent and made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport at 11.27am. Authorities confirm that she later died while seven other people were injured. 

Shults, a former Navy fighter pilot and one of the first women to fly an F-18, quickly brought Flight 1380 to land having calmly told Air Traffic Control: ‘So we have a part of the aircraft missing.’  

Asked if the plane was on fire, she said: ‘No, it’s not on fire but part of it’s missing. 

‘They said there is a hole and someone went out.’ She added that ‘we have injured passengers’ as she requested medical staff to meet them on landing. Passengers say that after landing the plane, the pilot took the time to speak to all those aboard personally. 

Those on board said they heard a loud ‘boom’ and the Boeing 737-700 immediately dropped, they said, by what felt like 100ft.

Oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling and passengers said their prayers and braced for impact. 

The National Transportation Safety Board has said a preliminary examination of the blown jet engine shows evidence of ‘metal fatigue.’  

Investigators have not yet determined what caused the explosion but they do know that one of the engine’s fan blades had come loose as the result of metal fatigue. It was found 70 miles from where the plane eventually landed, suggesting that it fell out when the engine exploded at 32,500ft 

Investigators examining the damaged engine of Southwest Airlines flight 1380 after it exploded in flight sending shrapnel into the fuselage, breaking a window and causing the plane to make an emergency landing 

A U.S. NTSB investigator is on scene examining damage to the engine of the Southwest Airlines plane in this image released from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Riordan was sitting next to the smashed window and others next to her described holding her down for 12 minutes until the plane landed.

Passenger Alfred Tumlinson, of Corpus Christi, Texas, said he saw a man in a cowboy hat rush forward a few rows ‘to grab that lady to pull her back in. She was out of the plane. He couldn’t do it by himself, so another gentleman came over and helped to get her back in the plane, and they got her’. 

Hero pilot Tammie Jo Shults (pictured) brought the plane down quickly but safely after the crash, saving the lives of the others on board

Another passenger, Eric Zilbert, an administrator with the California Education Department, said: ‘From her waist above, she was outside of the plane.’

Passengers struggled to somehow plug the hole while giving the badly injured woman CPR.  

Those on board did ‘some pretty amazing things under some pretty difficult circumstances’, Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel said.

Amanda Bourman, of New York, said she was asleep near the back when she heard a loud noise and oxygen masks dropped. 

‘Everybody was crying and upset,’ she said. ‘You had a few passengers that were very strong, and they kept yelling to people, you know, ‘It’s OK! We’re going to do this!”

‘I just remember holding my husband’s hand, and we just prayed and prayed and prayed. And the thoughts that were going through my head of course were about my daughters, just wanting to see them again and give them a big hug so they wouldn’t grow up without parents.’

Annunciation Catholic School, where her two children attend school, identified Riordan as the victim on Tuesday afternoon.

‘She was en route from New York when her plane experience (sic) trouble,’ assistant principal Amy McCarty wrote in an email to parents, according to ABQJournal.com. ‘At this point, the family needs all the prayers we can offer.’ 

Riordan, the wife of former City of Albuquerque Chief Operations Officer Michael, was the vice president of community relations for Wells Fargo bank, New Mexico, and had been on a business trip for the bank at the time of the explosion. 

Passenger Marty Martinez started a Facebook Live as the plane went down because he said he wanted to reach as many of his loved ones at once as he could

Riordan, a graduate from the University of New Mexico, was heavily involved with her local community and volunteering.

She managed Wells Fargo’s community projects and its annual United Way Community Support Campaign.The devastated family of Riordan have released a statement paying tribute to her. 

‘Jennifer’s vibrancy, passion and love infused our community and reached across our country. Her impact on everything and everyone she touched can never be fully measured. But foremost, she is the bedrock of our family. She and Mike wrote a love story unlike any other. Her beauty and love is evident through her children.

‘We are so appreciate of the outpouring of support from family, friends and our community. 

‘We do ask that those who seek to express their condolences and prayers as well as the media outlets respect our privacy at this time. Our family and friends need this time to both grieve and celebrate Jennifer’s impact on us all.

‘In her memory, please remember to always be kind, loving, caring and sharing.’

Mayor of Albuquerque Tim Keller added: ‘Today, Albuquerque lost a thoughtful leader who has long been part of the fabric of our community. We are asking that everyone respects the privacy of the family at this time. 

‘This is a tremendous and tragic loss for Jenifer’s family and many others throughout our city. Her leadership and philanthropic efforts made this a better place every day and she will be terribly missed.

This was the row of seats where the window was shattered. According to witnesses, passengers had to pull the woman back into the aircraft when she was sucked towards the window and some of her body was drawn through it

This was the view from on board the Southwest Airlines flight of the blown-out engine after the plane made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport. A piece of shrapnel from it flew backwards and shattered the window 

The window that was shattered was behind the engine that exploded. A piece of shrapnel flew backwards and pierced it, depressurizing the cabin and almost sucking the woman in the seat through it 

‘We are holding Jennifer and her family in our thoughts.’

Family friend John Benavidez tweeted: ‘‏My heart is broken with the news of my good friend Jennifer Riordan’s passing. She left a lasting mark on Albuquerque, NM and UNM with her many contributions. If there was ever an angel on Earth, it was Jennifer. Our prayers go out to her family.’

Before the NTSB’s announcement that there was one fatality involved, the Philadelphia Fire Commissioner said she was taken to hospital in a critical condition. 

‘One passenger, a woman, was partially drawn out towards the out of the plane, she was pulled back in by other passengers,’ Todd Bauer, the father of another passenger on board, told NBC 10.   

‘So we have a part of the aircraft missing’: How hero ex-Navy fighter pilot with ‘nerves of steel’ saved more than 100 passengers

The heroic pilot who calmly landed the Southwest Airlines flight has been identified as a former ex-Navy fighter pilot.

Tammie Jo Shults, one of the first women to fly an F-18, quickly brought the Dallas-bound Southwest Flight 1380 to land at Philadelphia International at 11.30am after the explosion at 32,000ft.  

Despite the crisis on board, Schults was calm as she told Air Traffic Control: ‘So we have a part of the aircraft missing.’

Asked if the plane was on fire, she said: ‘No, it’s not on fire but part of it’s missing. They said there is a hole and someone went out.’ She added that ‘we have injured passengers’ as she requested medical staff to meet them on landing. Passengers say that after landing the plane, the pilot took the time to speak to all those aboard personally.

Tammie Jo Shults (pictured left, and right on the aircraft with the rest of the crew), a former Navy fighter pilot and the first woman to fly an F-18, quickly brought the Dallas-bound Southwest Flight 1380 to land at Philadelphia International at 11.30am after the explosion at 32,000ft. 

‘Tammie Jo Schults, the pilot came back to speak to each of us personally,’ Diana McBride Self wrote. ‘This is a true American Hero. A huge thank you for her knowledge, guidance and bravery in a traumatic situation. God bless her and all the crew.’

Schults was one of the first female fighter pilots in the US Navy and first to fly an F-18. She later became an instructor, as the Navy did not allow women to fly in combat, and she finally resigned in 1993 when she joined Southwest Airlines. A mother-of-two, originally from New Mexico, Schults now lives with her husband Dean, a fellow pilot, in Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas.

‘She has nerves of steel. That lady, I applaud her,’ said Alfred Tumlinson, of Corpus Christi, Texas. ‘I’m going to send her a Christmas card, I’m going to tell you that, with a gift certificate for getting me on the ground. She was awesome.’

Terrified passengers shared videos and photos from on board before the plane landed as they descended at 3,000ft per minute until they leveled out at 10,000ft. 

One passenger filmed himself as he fitted his oxygen mask. ‘Something is wrong with our plane! It appears we are going down!

‘Emergency landing!! Southwest flight from NYC to Dallas!!’ Marty Martinez said as he broadcast live from the plane on Facebook. 

He paid $8 to connect to WiFi as the plane was going down, he said, in order to say his goodbyes.

He is the passenger who later told CBS the woman’s injuries left ‘blood everywhere.’  

Martinez added that the plane ‘smelled like ash’ once the window was open. He said flight attendants rushed over in shock and pleaded with passengers to cover up the hole.  

Riordan, a married mother-of-two from Albuquerque (pictured with her family) was rushed to hospital after the explosion but died a short time later

Riordan, the wife of former City of Albuquerque Chief Operations Officer Michael (pictured with her) was the vice president of community relations for Wells Fargo bank, New Mexico

The first sign of trouble was a loud noise which happened when the engine exploded. Timothy Bourman, 37, was sitting at the back of the plane when he said he heard a loud ‘boom’. 

‘All the sudden, it felt like we dropped 100 feet. Everybody knew something’s going on. 

‘This is bad, like really bad.’ A lot of people started panicking and yelling, just real scared.

‘We were kind of out of control for a while. It seemed like the pilot was having a hard time controlling the plane. Honestly I think we just all thought we were going down,’ he told Philly.com. 

Bourman, who was traveling with his wife, said they thought they were about to die until the pilot managed to gain control of the aircraft. 

‘We’re just all really thankful to be alive right now. Thankful to God, thankful to that pilot,’ he added. 

Matt Tranchin was sitting three rows behind the window that smashed. He described the chaos and said even the flight attendants were crying in fear. 

‘Flight attendants rushed up. There was momentary chaos. Everyone kind of descended on where this hole was. As passengers we weren’t sure if they were trying to cover up the hole, but the plane smelled like smoke. 

‘There was ash coming through the ventilation system. We started dropping,’ he told ABC News. 

‘As kind of an indication of how terrifying it was, some of the crew couldn’t hold back their horror. 

‘And some were crying as they looked out through the open window onto the engine,’ he added. 

Passenger Marty Martinez shared photographs and videos of himself on Facebook as the plane made its descent. He and other passengers are shown terrified as they hold their oxygen masks to their faces. He later said there was ‘blood everywhere’ as a result of the woman’s injuries 

Firefighters rushed onto the aircraft after it made its emergency landing at 11.30am on Tuesday 

As the plane made its descent towards Philadelphia, the crew warned passengers to brace for impact.   

When the shrapnel pierced the window, it depressurized the cabin and triggered the oxygen masks. Despite the chaos in the air, others said the emergency landing was fairly calm and smooth. 

One passenger told CNN: ‘It was a stable landing. We started descending, made the turn back to Philadelphia. 

‘We were with one engine for maybe 10 minutes. 

‘We decreased altitude from 8,000 to 5,000 and then when we finally landed it was relatively smooth, kind of a typical landing so the crew and the pilots did a fantastic job.’ 

Passengers were taken from buses to the airport.  It is not the first time the malfunction has occurred on a Southwest-operated Boeing 737-700. 

In August last year, a different flight from New Orleans to Orlando was forced to make an emergency landing at Pensacola Airport in Florida after the casing surrounding one of its engines tore away at a similar altitude. 

On Tuesday, the airline manufacturer said it was aware of the accident and was prepared to cooperate with investigations. 

‘Boeing is aware of an incident with Southwest Airlines flight #1380. 

‘We are gathering more information and stand ready to provide technical assistance,’ it tweeted.

The engine which exploded is a CFM56 turbofan engine which costs $10million and has a fan diameter of 68 inches. The engines are the most popular engines on single aisle commercial planes. 

One of the plane’s engines exploded not long after it had left LaGuardia Airport in New York City on Tuesday morning. The damaged engine is visible above after the plane had landed

All of the other passengers on board were evacuated after the injured woman was taken away by paramedics 

The plane was on its way from LaGuardia Airport in New York City to Dallas when it diverted in the air and turned back on itself to go to Philadelphia. It was flying over western Pennsylvania at around 32,500ft at the time 

The faulty engine was almost entirely exposed after the plane had landed 

The last time a passenger died in an accident on a U.S. airliner was 2009 when 49 people on board and one on the ground were killed when a Continental Express plane crashed on a house near Buffalo, New York.

Southwest has about 700 planes, all of them 737s, including more than 500 737-700s like the one in Tuesday’s accident. It is the world’s largest operator of the 737. The 737 is the best-selling jetliner in the world and has a good safety record.

The National Transportation Safety Board says a preliminary examination of the blown jet engine shows evidence of ‘metal fatigue.’

In a late night news conference, NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said one of the engine’s fan blades was separated and missing. 

Sumwalt says the blade was separated at the point where it would come into the hub and there was evidence of metal fatigue. 

He said part of the engine covering was found in Bernville, Pennsylvania, about 70 miles west of Philadelphia. 

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said in Dallas that there were no problems with the plane or its engine when it was inspected Sunday.

The jet’s CFM56-7B engines were made by CFM International, jointly owned by General Electric and Safran Aircraft Engines of France. CFM said in a statement that the CFM56-7B has had ‘an outstanding safety and reliability record’ since its debut in 1997, powering more than 6,700 aircraft worldwide.

Last year, the engine maker and the Federal Aviation Administration instructed airlines to make ultrasonic inspections of the fan blades of engines like those on the Southwest jet. The FAA said the move was prompted by a report of a fan blade failing and hurling debris. But it was unclear whether the particular engine that failed on Tuesday was covered by the directives.

‘There’s a ring around the engine that’s meant to contain the engine pieces when this happens,’ said John Goglia, a former NTSB member. ‘In this case it didn’t. That’s going to be a big focal point for the NTSB – why didn’t (the ring) do its job?’

In 2016, a Southwest Boeing 737-700 blew an engine as it flew from New Orleans to Orlando, Florida, and shrapnel tore a 5-by-16-inch hole just above the wing. The plane landed safely. The NTSB said a fan blade had broken off, apparently because of metal fatigue