Woman Who Died From The Southwest Airline’s Midair Explosion Identified

The woman who died after she was almost sucked out of her Southwest Airlines flight window following a midair explosion has been identified as 43 year old Jennifer Riordan, a mother-of-two from Albuquerque and a Wells Fargo executive.

She was returning from a business trip aboard the New York to Dallas flight when the plane’s left engine exploded sending shrapnel flying into a window next to her seat. The banking executive was left hanging half outside the shattered window as fellow passengers desperately scrambled to drag her back inside the aircraft, which was carrying 149 people.  

She was rushed to hospital immediately after hero pilot Tammie Jo Shults took the plane into a sharp descent and made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport at 11.27am.

Authorities confirm that she later died while seven other people were injured. Those on board said they heard a loud ‘boom’ and the Boeing 737-700 immediately dropped, they said, by what felt like 100ft. Oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling and passengers said their prayers and braced for impact.  

The National Transportation Safety Board has said a preliminary examination of the blown jet engine shows evidence of ‘metal fatigue.’