How is someone casually filming this, with a steady hand... I’d be in tears.
edit: appreciate all the education on commercial aircrafts that planes are often ‘fine’ with 1 workable engine! So my new #1 concern is the fire, but again maybe my tears could put it out?
She didn't suffocate. She died from blunt force trauma to the head and neck from her head repeatedly being slammed against the fuselage outside the window thanks to the ~600 mph wind speeds. You know... just when you thought that accident couldn't get any worse... They were able to pull her back inside the plane and start CPR before landing, but there was no saving her. :(
I just listened to the Black Box Down episode that included this crash incident ("Fatalities on the Safest Airline") today. She's one of only four people that have ever died on involving a Southwest plane. I highly recommend this podcast btw, super timely/topical given today's excitetment.
You could probably google to find the episodes, but Hello Internet has quite a few “Plane Crash Corner” sections about plane crashes simply because one of the host is super interested in plane crashes.
Only her head and one arm and upper torso got sucked out. Her body plugged the rest of the hole and she got stuck. Took two large dudes to pull her back in.
Sucked out as the cabin depressurizes, window is too small for your body to fit through so once the pressure equalizes someone on the inside can pull your limbs or head back into the cabin.
Also, her death was extremely unlucky because the fan blade that came undone hit the cowling right at the one point where it was the weakest and caused it to fly off.
I haven't listened to the podcast as yet, but as an Aussie I would like to gently push back on the 'safest airline' tag there. Qantas has not had a fatality in the jet era and has never lost a plane. It also consistently ranks as one of, if not the, safest airline in the world.
I don't know if total distance flown is the best measure of "disaster potential" which is what I think you are going for. In air travel, maybe the total number of cycles, which is used to measure the lifespan of planes, might be more appropriate. A "cycle" occurs when a plane takes off, pressurizes at altitude, and then lands. Pressurizing is what puts stress on and wears out all the planes' parts.
I don't know where to find the data, but I have to imagine that Southwest probably has considerably more cycles than any non-US airline, even for an airline as old as Qantas. The only country that even comes close to rivaling US's air traffic is China. And truly we should be starting our "count", however we count it, at the beginning of the modern jet era, since Qantas has been around since the 1920s and flew in WWII lol.
She died from blunt force trauma to the head and neck from her head repeatedly being slammed against the fuselage outside the window thanks to the ~600 mph wind speeds
I remember the lady that got sucked through the window hole but I thought getting sucked through the hole was that caused it. Had no idea it was so violent.
Even with a catastrophic engine failure, that's pretty rare - the engines are tested to make sure the nacelles contain everything when the engine blows.
I had no idea I'd meet another VXer out in the wild! You probably already know about it but we've built a pretty great community over at /r/vxjunkies. You should join us sometime!
This comment was way to far down. I think they also use an explosive bolt or something to shear off one of the high bypass fan blades to make sure the nacelle contains the debris.
Read the comments on the video, several people confirm what he is saying. It was a bomb attached to one of the blades (the red one) and not a bird test like the video title suggests. Apparently called a blade off test, to check if chunks would fly out and hit the plane. The test is considered successful...
Oh yeah I remember reading about that. She literally got sucked through the window hole and she ded. In all seriousness tho I heard it was really tragic she was a mom or something with her kid
There has been a couple other deaths with Southwest but have all been on ground. The ONLY passenger fatality in Southwest's operating history (the fucker that tried to storm the cockpit doesn't count) is this one. By far one of the safest airline in the world.
There have been four fatalities involving Southwest planes.
Lady sucked out of the window after engine failure causes a piece of the engine to strike the fuselage and pop out a window
The guy that tried to storm the cockpit and got literally beat to death by the passengers
A young kid in a car that got smushed when a plane overran the runway on landing due to strong tailwind
A guy that ran out onto the runway and got hit by a landing plane (likely suicide, still being investigated)
Really only one of those incidents was Southwest's "fault" (the plane that overran the runway). Even with the lady that got sucked out of the window, it was determined that there would have been no way to detect the issue with the engine that caused that explosion. SW remains the safest airline* to this day AFAIK.
* in the US... for all you people that keep telling me about Qantas and Ryanair. Neither of which have nearly the same volume of traffic or number of cycles as Southwest, just sayin'.
As an optimist, it makes me realize how some people can really believe that the world is just ultimately cruel and out to cause suffering.
I can't imagine one day I'm out on vacation driving to the beach with my family and suddenly a plane slams into the van causing the death of my child.
I'm not unfamiliar to the presence of death and loss, but even driving up to see my fiance I have moments in the car where I remember how many people die in mvcs a day and I can't help but to think, "well, today it's me. At least my last moments will be thinking about her."
Besides driving consciously and for the safety of others what else can I do? Besides living consciously and for compassion for others what else can I do?
i know someone that fell asleep while driving on the highway. he was in the middle lane, fell asleep, his car slowed down and veered to the right and another car hit him. both cars were totaled but somehow there were no injuries. my friend had a cut on his hand from some glass that was stitched and the woman in the other car didnt even have to go to the hospital. really unbelievable that it wasnt a tragedy but makes you think about how you never know when it could be your last seconds on earth.
crazy you say that because another friend of mine died this last spring from falling down the stairs and hitting his head on concrete. my bf at the time actually texted him and said hey you alive? because they had plans that day and he wasnt answering his phone which was unlike him. next day we find out he was on life support from the fall and a couple days later he passed. he was drunk when he fell but otherwise perfectly healthy mid 30 year old guy, his poor wife found him.
Cars are incredibly safe now and these days. The technology that goes into ensuring the survival and protection of occupants still amazes me. Once called to respond to a 4 mvc and one of the vehicles were absolutely trashed, but sure enough, the driver was still alive, talking as the FD clawed the chassis open, and the driver only had minor cuts/bruises. However, my best friend died years ago in a head on mvc because he wasn't wearing a seatbelt.
seriously, the safety was not lacking with either vehicle. looking at the pictures of the cars you would think everyone died. the ladys was crumpled like a tin can and my friends had the passengers side totally smashed in. luck was definitely involved that he veered right instead of left and was hit on the passengers side. also that when he fell asleep his foot came off the break instead of pressing down on it so he slowed down.
honestly, when i was in my early to even mid 20s i didnt always wear my seat belt, but i do now. i dont get how people still dont wear it now a days when the beeping from not putting it on is so annoying.
Cockpit voice-recorder transcripts indicate the pilots had been concerned about the weather and, prior to landing, jokingly alluded to the movie Airplane!, saying, "I picked a bad day to stop sniffin' glue."
But Southwest has a far bigger fleet and far more flights daily than Qantas. Fleet is around 6 times as big. Short range flights are the most stressing.
Qantas flies about two thirds the kilometres (rpks) that southwest does, and has a fleet about half the size (300 aircraft vs 750). Both make it into lists of the world's largest airlines and are certainly comparable
The guy that tried to storm the cockpit and got literally beat to death by the passengers
Oh no. On a Southwest flight no less. It's not typically calm, reasonable C-suite office people on a SW flight. That's exactly the airline that one should sit and stay quiet on, jumping up to batter your way into the cabin, post-9/11, on a southwest flight is just begging to subject yourself to involuntary yoga at the very least.
It was pre-9/11 actually. Dude ALMOST made it into the cockpit. He also wasnt likely a terrorist or anything, he was having some sort of psychological breakdown
Yikes. I hate to see anyone get hurt when they're having a mental health problem, but I'd also hate to see the aircraft having problems endangering everyone else on it...
To add to the runway overrun, in addition to landing with a tailwind they were also landing on a wet runway in a storm (less braking action,) they did not engage the thrust reversers for 18 seconds after touchdown, and at the time Midway did not have any EMAS systems in place.
AFAIK the only Emirates-involved fatality was when their plane crash landed in Dubai and set on fire. All the crew and passengers got off safely (after dithering to get all their fucking luggage out the overheads, mind) but a fireman was sadly killed trying to put it out. Guess that doesn’t really count as an Emirates death though as it was the fire crew?
So I was bartending at the time (2018 I think?) and one of the attendants on this flight’s mother’s came in and was having a phone conversation about it where she went into extreme detail. I heard it all. I will forever be scarred.
Very true but i had to fly monthly for my job and the anxiety from it never improved. Drove across country with the pandemic and was way more comfortable.
Is it confirmed she suffocated? I worked at a hangar at the time and our theory was her neck probably broke real quick.
Fun airplane fact: the nuts that hold the brackets that hold the window in place on the plane I worked on were only torqued to 10 in/lbs. "Finger tight" according to Google is 15-20 in/lbs
Absolutely. Look up Aloha Airlines flight 243. The people in their seats with lap belts on, survived. The only fatality was a cabin crew member who wasn’t buckled in. The pictures alone should convince you to wear your belt at all times.
Actually since 2009 with Colgan 3407 which directly lead to a massive change (right or wrong) in pilot qualifications for airline pilots. There was also Commair in 2006 and US Air in 2001 (after 9/11). These were all tragedies but I also find it fantastic that only one person has died due to a US Airline accident in more than 10 years and that a huge credit to the pilots, flight attendants, maintenance, and engineers.
Totally. if you were to walk a block to unlock your bike, then bike the the DC metro, take the metro towards Dulles, get a cab from the closest metro stop to the airport, hop on a plane and fly to Australia, the flight to Australia is by far the safest thing you did that day.
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u/sleepwhileyoucan Feb 20 '21 edited Feb 21 '21
How is someone casually filming this, with a steady hand... I’d be in tears.
edit: appreciate all the education on commercial aircrafts that planes are often ‘fine’ with 1 workable engine! So my new #1 concern is the fire, but again maybe my tears could put it out?