How do you get sucked out a plane window – why it happened to Jennifer Riordan on the Southwest Airlines flight 1380
YESTERDAY, an American woman was died after she was partially sucked out of the window of a plane at 32,000ft during a Southwest Airlines flight.
Banking executive Jennifer Riordan suffered head injuries after the jet exploded on Southwest flight 1380 from New York to Dallas.
She was pulled back inside the aircraft by brave passengers and crew after the aircraft was pierced by shrapnel.
Pilot Tammie Jo Shults is being hailed a hero for safely landing the plane with 143 passengers and five crew on board at Philadelphia.
But sadly, Jennifer was unable to recover from her injuries.
So why did the passenger get sucked out of the plane? Sun Online Travel explains what happens when a hole appears in a pressurised aircraft flying at 35,000ft in the air.
He said: I think that it all depends on the location of the depressurization.
“But in general I would say it would be that seat that is closer to the middle of the airplane, like an aisle seat [because] you’re farther from the side.”
Can you survive if you are partially sucked out of a plane during a flight?
While Banking executive Jennifer Riordan suffered fatal head injuries after the jet exploded on Southwest flight 1380, there have been incidents where people have survived.
In 1990, pilot of the cockpit of a BA flight from Birmingham to Malaga and survived.
He suffered from frostbite, fractures to his arm and wrist and a broken thumb and was flying again within five months.