Who was Jennifer Riordan? Woman sucked out of plane window on Southwest Airlines flight 1380
ALBUQUERQUE banker and mother of two Jennifer Riordan is the passenger who died after being partially sucked out of a plane window.
The Southwest Boeing 737 had just departed New York's LaGuardia Airport en-route to Dallas when the left engine exploded and ruptured metal flew towards a window. Here's what we know about the tragic death.
Who was Jennifer Riordan?
Jennifer Riordan died after the engine failure on board Southwest Airlines flight 1380.
The plane was struck by shrapnel in midair as it flew from New York to Dallas yesterday.
She was a Wells Fargo bank executive and mother of two from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Tragic Jennifer was the first passenger killed in an accident involving a US airline since 2009.
The seven other victims on Flight 1380 suffered minor injuries.
Her heartbroken husband Michael, and their two young children, described her as "the bedrock of our family".
A family statement read: "Jennifer’s vibrancy, passion and love infused our community and reached across our country.
"Her impact on everything and everyone she touched can never be fully measured.
"She and Mike wrote a love story unlike any other. Her beauty and love is evident through her children."
What happened to her?
The Boeing 737 had just taken off from New York's LaGuardia Airport, heading to Dallas, when the left engine exploded and ruptured metal flew towards a window.
It was flying over east Pennsylvania with 143 passengers and five members of crew on board when the left engine suddenly exploded mid air.
The pilot immediately diverted towards Philadelphia to make an emergency landing and photos show what appears to be jet fuel, oozing from the passenger plane on to the tarmac.
According to other passengers on the plane, the shrapnel pierced a window next to Jennifer as the aircraft made its descent.
A retired nurse detailed the terrifying moment when shrapnel struck Mrs Riordan’s window and pulled her through the hole, almost completely sucking her out of the aircraft.
Peggy Phillips was sitting a row in front of Mrs Riordan when the engine exploded.
Firefighter Andrew Needum and Tim McGinty, a ranch hand who was travelling with his wife, helped pull the woman back inside the plane.
“The window had broken and the suction, the negative pressure, had pulled her outside the plane partially,” she said. “These two wonderful men, the EMT and a passenger, managed to get her back inside the plane and we lay her down and we started CPR.”
“The engine went out and we had a lady go out the window, and we couldn’t pull her in,” he said. “A guy helped, we got her pulled in. They tried to resuscitate her.”
Ms Phillips abandoned her own oxygen mask to help revive Ms Riordan but there was little that could be done because of the trauma she suffered.
“If you can possibly imagine going through the window of an aeroplane at about 600mph, and hitting either the fuselage or the wing with your body, with your face ... I can probably tell you that there was significant trauma to the body,” she said. “Significant head trauma, facial trauma.”
She was rushed to hospital but later died of her injuries which were blunt force trauma to the head, neck and torso.
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