Southwest Completes Engine Inspections After Deadly Explosion

Southwest Airlines announced Thursday that it completed fan blade inspections on the CFM56-7B engines found on the carrier’s fleet of Boeing 737-700 and 737-800 planes.

While Southwest officials found no additional subsurface cracks, several blades were sent to engine maker General Electric “out of an abundance of caution because of coating anomalies on the blades,” according to the Washington Post.

The federally mandated inspection of 35,000 engine fan blades was part of an existing Southwest inspection program that was accelerated, which caused flight delays and cancellations last month as the airline worked to meet all government mandates.

The inspections come after an engine explosion on Southwest Flight 1380 killed a female passenger and forced a heroic pilot to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia.

The flight from New York to Dallas suffered a major engine explosion on April 17 that sent shrapnel into the cabin and shattered a window. The damage to the plane caused a 43-year-old woman identified as Jennifer Riordan of New Mexico to be partially sucked out the window.

Southwest executives announced during a quarterly earnings report meeting in late April that the airline expected bookings to take a hit in the second quarter of 2018 due to the engine inspections associated with the Fight 1380 incident.