The Latest: Southwest pilots: 'Our hearts are heavy'
The Latest on the plane that made an emergency landing in Philadelphia (all times local):
10:50 p.m.
The two pilots of a Southwest Airlines plane that made an emergency landing in Philadelphia say their "hearts are heavy."
Captain Tammie Jo Shults and First Officer Darren Ellisor issued a statement through the airline late Wednesday.
They say they appreciate the outpouring of support they've received from the public and their co-workers as they "reflect on one family's profound loss."
An engine on the plane blew apart Tuesday, showering the aircraft with debris and shattering a window. A woman sitting next to the window was partially blown out of it. She later died.
The Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday that it would order inspections on engine fan blades like the one that snapped off and triggered the accident.
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8:40 p.m.
Federal airline regulators say they will order inspections on engine fan blades like the one involved in fatal failure that killed a woman in a plane that made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.
The Federal Aviation Administration said late Wednesday that it will issue a directive in the next two weeks to require inspections of certain CFM56-7B engines.
That's the type of engine that suffered a failure on a Southwest Airlines plane on Tuesday. Debris from the engine hit the plane and damaged a window, leading to a woman being partially blown out. The woman later died and seven people were hurt in the flight scheduled to go from New York to Dallas.
The directive will require ultrasonic inspections of fan blades when they reach a certain number of takeoffs and landings. Blades that fail inspection will have to be replaced.
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6:40 p.m.
Philadelphia's medical examiner says that a woman killed when she was partially blown out of a Southwest Airlines plane died of blunt impact trauma to her head, neck and torso.
Spokesman James Garrow of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health said Wednesday evening that Jennifer Riordan's death was ruled accidental.
Riordan was killed and seven others were injured after the twin-engine 737 blew an engine at 30,000 feet Tuesday and got hit by shrapnel.
Federal investigators are still trying to figure out how the window came out of the plane. National Transportation Safety Board chairman Robert Sumwalt says that the woman was wearing a seatbelt and sitting next to the window.
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5:15 p.m.
A federal investigator says that a crack on the interior of a jet engine is what led to the failure that shot debris at the plane, leading to the death of a passenger.
National Transportation Safety Board chairman Robert Sumwalt said at a news conference Wednesday that one of the 24 blades in the Southwest Airlines 737's engine fractured from metal fatigue.
Sumwalt says he is very concerned about Tuesday's engine failure, but would not extrapolate that to the CFM56 engines or the entire fleet of Boeing 737s. The plane is the most popular airliner ever built.
He says investigators are still trying to figure out how a window came out of the plane. Sumwalt says that the woman who was wearing a seatbelt and sitting next to the window died.
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4:50 p.m.
A federal investigator says that they are still trying to figure out how a window came out of a plane that made an emergency landing in Philadelphia, killing the woman seated in that row.
National Transportation Safety Board chairman Robert Sumwalt said at a news conference Wednesday that there was no acrylic material from the window found in the Southwest Airlines 737 that made an emergency landing Tuesday.
Sumwalt says the leading edge of the left wing suffered damage after the plane blew an engine.
Jennifer Riordan's family said in a statement that the 43-year-old community leader from New Mexico died Tuesday in the plane that was headed from New York to Dallas.
Passengers say Riordan was partially blown out of the window after the plane was hit by engine debris.
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4:45 p.m.
A federal investigator says a plane that made an emergency landing in Philadelphia landed much faster than normal because they were concerned about losing control of the plane at a slower speed.
National Transportation Safety Board chairman Robert Sumwalt said the Southwest Airlines 737 landed at about 190 miles per hour. He says a typical plane lands at around 155 mph.
He says the leading edge of the left wing suffered damage after the plane blew an engine at 30,000 feet Tuesday and got hit by shrapnel.
One person was killed and seven others were injured after the twin-engine 737 blew an engine at 30,000 feet Tuesday and got hit by shrapnel that smashed a window.
The plane from New York to Dallas landed in Philadelphia.
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3:45 p.m.
A Southwest Airlines pilot is being lauded as a hero in an emergency landing after a passenger was partly blown out of the jet's damaged fuselage and also being hailed for her pioneering role in aviation.
Tammie Jo Shults's husband, Dean, says she was one of two pilots of the Dallas-bound Flight 1380 that landed in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
The twin-engine Boeing 737 that left New York with 149 people board was hit by shrapnel that smashed a window, killing a passenger and injuring seven others.
Naval Air Force Commander Ron Flanders says Shults was among the first women fighter pilots in the U.S. Navy.
Friend Racheal Russo said Shults "loved" her military career and says she learned by overcoming obstacles things as a woman in a male-dominated field.
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2:20 p.m.
A Texas rancher says he and a Texas firefighter pulled a woman back into a plane after a window was damaged following an engine failure.
Tim McGinty told reporters late Tuesday that he helped his wife and a friend put on their oxygen masks before he realized the woman sitting in the row in front of him was in trouble on the Southwest Airlines plane from New York to Dallas that made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.
He grabbed her with his right arm and tried to pull her back into the window, but the force from outside the plane was too strong.
McGinty says that's when Celina, Texas, firefighter Andrew Needum ran to help and the two were able to pull the woman back in.
The Albuquerque, New Mexico, woman was killed.
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12:50 p.m.
A second piece of a plane that made an emergency landing after a fatal engine mishap has been found in a Pennsylvania town about 60 miles (97 km) northwest of the Philadelphia International Airport.
WCAU-TV reports that the debris believed to be from the plane was found on state game land near Reading Wednesday morning.
It's the second piece of debris from the Dallas-bound flight found in the area. National Transportation and Safety Board officials said a piece of the engine covering was found in nearby Bernville Tuesday.
The flight from New York was forced to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia after the twin-engine 737 blew an engine at 30,000 feet Tuesday and got hit by shrapnel that smashed a window.
State police spokesman Trooper David Beohm says anyone who believes they have found debris should call the FBI office in Allentown.
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11:30 a.m.
The family of an Albuquerque bank executive who died on a Southwest Airlines flight says the mother of two was full of "vibrancy, passion, and love."
Jennifer Riordan's family said in a statement that the 43-year-old community leader died Tuesday on a plane that made an emergency landing in Philadelphia. Passengers say Riordan was partially blown out of the window after the plane was hit by engine debris.
The family called Riordan the "bedrock of our family" and asked those mourning her passing to "be kind, caring and sharing" in her honor.
The death generated an outpouring of grief from Albuquerque business leaders, elected officials, poets, and activists.
The Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce held a moment of silence Tuesday night during a special reception for new University of New Mexico President Garnett Stokes.
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9:35 a.m.
A retired registered school nurse says she performed CPR on the woman who passengers say was partially blown out of the window of a Southwest Airlines plane that had been hit by engine debris.
Officials say Jennifer Riordan of Albuquerque, New Mexico, died after the plane heading from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Dallas made an emergency landing Tuesday in Philadelphia.
Peggy Phillips spoke to WFAA-TV upon her arrival in Dallas Tuesday night. She says shortly after takeoff there was a loud noise and the plane started shaking like it was "coming apart."
She says they started losing altitude and the masks came down.
She heard a lot of commotion a few rows behind her, noise and a whoosh of air and calls for someone who knew CPR.
She says she and an EMT lay the woman down and performed CPR for about 20 minutes, until the plane made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.
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4:50 a.m.
The National Transportation Safety Board says a preliminary examination of the blown jet engine of the Southwest Airlines plane that set off a terrifying chain of events showed evidence of "metal fatigue."
One person was killed and seven others were injured after the twin-engine 737 blew an engine at 30,000 feet Tuesday and got hit by shrapnel that smashed a window. The plane from New York to Dallas landed in Philadelphia.
In a late night news conference, NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said one of the engine's fan blades was separated and missing. The blade was separated at the point where it would come into the hub and there was evidence of metal fatigue.
As a precaution, Southwest says it will inspect similar engines in its fleet over the next 30 days.