Video shows Southwest flight attendants scrambling to calm panicked passengers

New footage has emerged showing Southwest flight attendants scrambling to calm panicked passengers following the mid-air explosion that left a woman dead after she was half sucked out of a plane window.

A passenger filmed herself breathing through her oxygen mask on Tuesday as several flight attendants screamed for people to remain calm as the hero pilot tried to make an emergency landing.

‘We are almost there. Everybody breathe, everybody relax,’ multiple flight crew could be heard saying after panic broke out. 

One flight attendant standing behind the female passenger repeatedly said over the plane’s loudspeaker: ‘Everybody breathe, we are almost there.’ 

A passenger filmed herself breathing through her oxygen mask on Tuesday as several flight attendants screamed for people to remain calm following the Southwest flight explosion

The CFM56 engine on the Southwest blew apart over Pennsylvania, about 20 minutes after the Dallas-bound flight left New York’s LaGuardia Airport with 149 people on board. 

The explosion sent shrapnel ripping into the fuselage of the plane and shattered a window.

The terrifying chain of events on the flight brought out acts of bravery among the passengers and crew members.

The hero pilot, Tammie Jo Shults, has drawn widespread praise for safely bringing the crippled jet to an emergency landing in Philadelphia during the 22-minute crisis.

Bank executive and mother-of-two Jennifer Riordan, 43, was killed when she was partially pulled through a gaping hole next to her seat as the cabin suffered rapid decompression. 

A man in a cowboy hat, rancher Tim McGinty of Hillsboro, Texas, tore his mask off and struggled to pull the woman in. Andrew Needum, a firefighter from Celina, Texas, came to help and the two of them managed to drag her back inside.   

One flight attendant standing behind the female passenger repeatedly said over the plane's loudspeaker: 'Everybody breathe, we are almost there'

One flight attendant standing behind the female passenger repeatedly said over the plane’s loudspeaker: ‘Everybody breathe, we are almost there’

Jennifer Riordan

Tammie Jo Shults

Bank executive Jennifer Riordan, 43, (left) was killed when she was partially pulled through a gaping hole next to her seat before hero pilot Tammie Jo Shults (right) could land the plane

The CFM56 engine on the Southwest blew apart over Pennsylvania, about 20 minutes after the Dallas-bound flight left New York's LaGuardia Airport

The CFM56 engine on the Southwest blew apart over Pennsylvania, about 20 minutes after the Dallas-bound flight left New York’s LaGuardia Airport

The explosion sent shrapnel ripping into the fuselage of the plane and shattered a window

The explosion sent shrapnel ripping into the fuselage of the plane and shattered a window

‘It seemed like two minutes and it seemed like two hours,’ McGinty told reporters, a bandage on an arm he scraped while trying to save the woman. 

When a flight attendant asked if anyone knew CPR, retired school nurse Peggy Phillips got out of her seatbelt, and she and the firefighter laid the grievously injured woman down. The two of them began administering CPR for about 20 minutes, until the plane landed.

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

The Philadelphia medical examiner said she died of blunt impact trauma of the head, neck and torso. 

Once the plane had landed and Riordan had been rushed off to hospital, the pilot got out of the cockpit to comfort the other passengers on board.

The pilot Tammie Jo Shults got out of the cockpit to comfort the other passengers on board after safely landing the plane

Passenger Marty Martinez (left) started a Facebook Live post during the ordeal because he said he wanted to communicate with as many loved ones as possible

Passenger Marty Martinez (left) started a Facebook Live post during the ordeal because he said he wanted to communicate with as many loved ones as possible

Shults was pictured hugging traumatized passengers as they thanked her for saving their lives.  

As the panic unfolded, some passengers took to social media to say their goodbyes to friends and family.  

Matt Tranchin, who was heading home to Dallas, began texting his eight-months-pregnant wife and his parents that he loved them and telling them things he wanted his unborn son to know if the plane crashed and he didn’t make it. 

Marty Martinez, who runs a Dallas marketing agency, decided to buy in-flight Wi-Fi service so he could do a Facebook Live post.

His footage showed him and other passengers with oxygen masks on, the wind whipping in the background. He said he went with Facebook Live instead of texting people individually because he wanted to communicate with as many loved ones as possible.

Martinez has since been trolled on social media for livestreaming the incident.  



Read more at DailyMail.co.uk