A Southwest jet headed from Chicago to Newark was forced to land in Cleveland after the exterior glass of a window cracked. No one was hurt but it caused great concern on the part of passengers following a recent death on a Southwest plane where a New Mexico mother was killed when the window that she was seated next to broke open and she was partially sucked out of the plane. She later died from her injuries.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced it is not investigating this latest incident, which is disappointing for aviation accident lawyers like Kevin P. Durkin, partner at Clifford Law Offices in Chicago.
“The NTSB should be concerned to see if there is any relevance as to why the window broke in the fatal engine failure accident,” Durkin said. “Vibrations may have been a reason and that won’t be known until the initial investigation is complete. But there certainly is a need for thoroughness when emergency landings are called for.”
Passengers near the cracked window were moved to other seats while Southwest Flight #957 made its way to Cleveland. Southwest spokespeople said that the aircraft was taken out of service “for maintenance review.”
Seventy-six passengers were aboard the twin-engine Boeing 737 that took off from Chicago’s Midway Airport yesterday (May 2, 2018) just before 10 a.m. When it rose to 33,000 feet, about an hour and 20 minutes into the flight, passengers reported hearing a loud crash and noticed the cracked window. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it is looking into the matter.
Southwest Airlines is based in Dallas and is the nation’s fourth largest airline.