Southwest Airlines Flight Makes Emergency Landing After Engine Explodes

Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 made an emergency landing in Philadelphia today after the aircraft’s left engine apparently exploded while en route from New York’s La Guardia Airport to Dallas Love Field. The plane landed safely, but apparently one passenger was seriously injured.

As this incident just happened, it is too soon to know what caused the engine to fail so violently. It is also too soon to know how the passenger was injured. If the engine exploded, however, there is a real possibility that the passenger was struck by flying debris that entered the cabin.

The aircraft involved was a737-700 model, which is used widely by Southwest Airlines and other carriers. And, like most newer commercial aircraft, the 737 has historically been a safe platform. Nonetheless, another Southwest Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing in Salt Lake City in February after one of its engines caught fire.

Whether these incidents have any correlation to one another and whether they were caused by faulty maintenance or some other issue will be explored during the investigation. In the meantime, we will continue to follow this incident and will update this post as more is discovered.