Southwest confirmed that flight 1380 was diverted to Philadelphia, but did not provide any further information on the reason.
A Southwest flight en route from New York to Dallas made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport on Tuesday, after crew reported damage to one of the aircraft’s engines as well as the fuselage, or main body of the plane, and at least one window, according to Federal Aviation Administration.
One passenger was taken to the hospital, and seven others were treated for minor injuries but not transported, said Philadelphia fire commissioner Adam Thiel at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
A National Transportation Safety Board team is on its way to the site to determine how the incident occurred, he said. Southwest confirmed that flight 1380 was diverted to Philadelphia. The aircraft, a Boeing 737-700, had 143 passengers and five crew members on board, according to Southwest.
Engines are designed with a covering so that if an engine experiences an explosion or ingests a foreign object, blades do not fly off and damage the fuselage. Such incidents that damage the fuselage are extremely rare, said Richard Aboulafia, vice president at aviation analysis firm Teal Group. The engine is among the most commonly used around the world, he added.
«This is as close as you get to the textbook definition of a workhorse engine,» said Aboulafia. «There are still incidents that can only be described as freak.»
— CNBC’s Anjali Robins contributed to this report
