Passengers on a Southwest flight describe the harrowing moments after an engine exploded, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing. One man onboard tried to save the woman who died when she was almost sucked out of a plane window. USA TODAY
A retired nurse aboard an errant Southwest Airlines flight performed CPR on a dying woman as the plane braced for an emergency landing Tuesday.
One of Flight 1380's jet engines failed roughly 30-minutes after taking off from LaGuardia Airport in New York City, forcing a rough emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport. Passengers described a horrific scene, wherein a drastic drop in pressure caused Jennifer Riordan, a mother of two, to be sucked out a plane window.
Other passengers were able to pull Riordan into the plane, where passenger Peggy Phillips, a retired nurse, rushed to her aide after hearing a call for anyone who knew CPR, reports ABC-6. Together with an onboard EMT, Phillips gave Riordan CPR for 20 minutes through the plane's emergency landing in Philadelphia.
"It just wasn't going to be enough," Phillips told NBC-10.
It wasn't. Riordan, a bank executive from Albuquerque, New Mexico, died from her injuries.
"It happened so fast," Phillips told ABC-6. "If you can possibly imagine going through the window of an airplane at about 600 miles an hour and hitting either the fuselage or the wing with your body - with your face - then I think I can probably tell you there was significant trauma."
More on Flight 1380: 'She is the bedrock of our family': Wells Fargo exec died on Southwest flight