Southwest Airlines Flight 1380
Pieces of the aircraft engine nacelle in a field | |
| Accident | |
|---|---|
| Date | April 17, 2018 |
| Summary | Engine failure leading to rapid depressurization |
| Site |
|
| Aircraft | |
| N772SW, the aircraft involved in the accident, seen in 2016 | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737-7H4 |
| Operator | Southwest Airlines |
| IATA flight No. | WN1380 |
| ICAO flight No. | SWA1380 |
| Call sign | SOUTHWEST 1380 |
| Registration | N772SW |
| Flight origin | LaGuardia Airport, New York City, New York, United States |
| Destination | Dallas Love Field, Dallas, Texas, United States |
| Occupants | 149 |
| Passengers | 144 |
| Crew | 5 |
| Fatalities | 1 |
| Injuries | 8 |
| Survivors | 148 |
On April 17, 2018, Southwest Airlines Flight 1380, a Boeing 737-7H4 flying from LaGuardia Airport, New York, en route to Dallas Love Field, Texas, experienced an engine failure over Pennsylvania. The engine cowl was broken in the failure, and cowl fragments damaged the fuselage, bursting a cabin window and causing explosive depressurization of the aircraft. Other fragments caused destruction to the wing. The pilots then descended and diverted to Philadelphia International Airport, Pennsylvania. One passenger was partially ejected from the aircraft and died, while eight other passengers sustained minor injuries. After the accident, the aircraft was written-off.
This accident was very similar to an accident suffered 20 months earlier by Southwest Airlines Flight 3472 flying the same aircraft type with the same engine type. After that earlier accident, the engine manufacturer, CFM International, issued a service directive calling for ultrasonic inspections of the turbine fan blades with certain serial numbers, service cycles, or service time. Southwest Airlines did not perform the inspection on the engine involved in this failure because it was not required to according to the parameters specified by the directive.
After the final report was released in 2019, multiple design recommendations were made, one such recommendation was that Boeing should develop and install a redesigned fan cowl structure due to the cowling latch's vulnerability in a fan blade outage.