The man sitting in front of the woman who died on Southwest Airlines flight 1380 last week has spoken out about the ordeal.
Eric Zilbert, 60, was traveling with his 89-year-old grandmother from New York to Dallas when the engine on the plane failed.
It smashed Jennifer Riordan’s window and depressurized the cabin, causing the oxygen masks to fall.
Before he knew that Riordan’s upper body had been sucked out of the window, Zilbert, who is from Sacramento, put his mask on and his mother’s.
He said the plummeted 41 degrees but he did not notice in the chaos.
Eric Zilbert, 60, was sitting in front of Jennifer Riordan when the upper half of her body was sucked out of the Southwest Airlines plane last Tuesday
‘Just this sucking sound. Like being inside a balloon when it deflates,’ he told The Sacramento Bee of the moment.
Once he realized what had happened, Riordan was dead, he said.
He tried to remain calm on the plane and reassured others around him that they would make it down safely.
A self-proclaimed aviation buff, Zilbert, like others who survived the ordeal, said pilot Tammie Jo Shults had a good handle on the plane.
‘The plane is flying. There is no smoke. No flame.
‘My assessment was for some reason this window failed. Ignorance is bliss,’ Zilbert said.
This was the Row 14 seat which Riordan was sitting in when she was sucked towards the window at 32,00ft
This harrowing image taken before the plane made its emergency landing shows the state of the exploded engine
Riordan’s window was smashed by shrapnel from the exploding engine which was several rows in front of her and in fact, was directly beside the Needum family in Row 7
He started telling the other passengers: ‘We are going to make it down.
‘Keep your masks on. Remain calm.’
He tried, at one stage, to cover the broken window with a plastic plate but said it blew out immediately.
Others in front of him were more fearful because they had a better view of the engine.
Despite the trauma, Zilbert said both he and his mother were calm and that both would fly again.
They each received a $5,000 check from Southwest Airlines and a $1,000 gift voucher.