Southwest Airlines Flight 1380

Jeremy Berke

Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 suffered an engine failure that smashed a plane window, sucking a passenger halfway out of the plane in midair.

A passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight on Tuesday was partially sucked out of a window after an engine exploded in midair.

The flight, traveling from New York to Dallas, was forced to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia, and the passenger — a 43-year-old woman named Jennifer Riordan — died Tuesday at a hospital. It was the first fatality in a US passenger plane accident in nine years.

Passengers on the flight described how, after the explosion sent shrapnel into one of the plane’s windows, Riordan was pulled halfway out of aircraft.

While passengers were able to pull Riordan back into the plane, another passenger was said to have felt “severe pressure” after positioning his back against the opening in the cabin in an attempt to seal it.

When there’s an opening in an airplane during flight (regardless of the cause), the plane will undergo rapid depressurization.

Adapted from http://www.businessinsider.com