NEW YORK, KOMPAS.com — Seorang perempuan tewas ketika sebuah pesawat tujuan New York ke Dallas, Amerika Serikat ( AS), mengalami masalah mesin di tengah penerbangan.
Diwartakan Sky News, Rabu (18/4/2018), mesin sebelah kiri pesawat Boeing 737 milik maskapai Southwest Airlines meledak pada ketinggian 32.000 kaki pada Selasa (17/4/2018).
Pecahan mesin itu menghantam jendela di tempat Jennifer Riordan duduk yang ketika itu tengah berada dalam perjalanan pulang sesuai melakukan urusan bisnis di New York.
Kaca yang pecah membuat Riordan hampir terlontar keluar. Beruntung, saat itu seorang penumpang pria langsung menggenggam tangannya, dan berusaha menariknya ke dalam.
Penumpang yang bernama Alfred Tumlinson mengatakan, penumpang tersebut tidak bisa melakukannya sendirian. Jadi, dia dibantu seorang penumpang lain.
Baca juga: Southwest Airlines Mendarat Darurat akibat Kerusakan Mesin
Usaha mereka berdua berhasil. Riordan berhasil ditarik ke dalam, dan lubang tempatnya hampir tersedot keluar langsung ditutup.
Sayangnya, meski sudah dilakukan pertolongan pertama, Riordan yang berprofesi sebagai wakil presiden sebuah bank itu meninggal karena menderita akibat luka yang dideritanya.
Gubernur New Mexico Susana Martinez menyampaikan belasungkawa, dan mengatakan, Riordan merupakan sosok yang sangat dikenal di negara bagian tersebut.
"Dia adalah perempuan luar biasa yang mementingkan keluarga serta lingkungannya. Kehilangannya bakal terasa di seluruh New Mexico," kata Martinez dikutip AP via Stuff.
Selain korban tewas, insiden tersebut juga membuat tujuh penumpang lain mengalami luka-luka meski tidak membahayakan hidup mereka.
Pesawat yang membawa 143 penumpang dan 5 awak kabin tersebut berhasil mendarat dengan selamat di Bandara Internasional Philadelphia.
Para penumpang memuji Tammie Jo Shults yang tetap tenang meski berada dalam situasi genting. "Dia mempunyai saraf baja. Dia luar biasa," kata Tomlinson.
"Kami beruntung punya pilot yang cakap seperti dia. Pesawat begitu stabil saat insiden itu terjadi," puji penumpang lainnya, Eric Zilbert.
Dalam keterangan resminya, Southwest menyatakan, ketika dilakukan pemeriksaan pada Minggu (15/4/2018), tidak ditemukan masalah pada mesin dan pesawatnya.
"Saat ini, kami tengah dalam proses untuk menggali lebih banyak informasi. Keselamatan merupakan prioritas utama kami," ujar Southwest di Twitter.
Riordan merupakan penumpang pertama yang tewas dalam kecelakaan yang melibatkan maskapai AS sejak 2009.
Saat itu, maskapai Continental Express jatuh menerpa sebuah rumah di Buffalo, dekat New York, dan menewaskan 50 orang, baik di dalam pesawat maupun di darat.
Baca juga: Karyawan Maskapai Southwest Tewas Tertembak, Bandara di Oklahoma Ditutup
(CNN) Jennifer Riordan, a well-known leader and altruist from New Mexico, died Tuesday when a Southwest Airlines jet engine failed midair and its debris blew up a window.
Riordan, 43, was making her way back home to Albuquerque, New Mexico, when a terrifying episode ensued about 20 minutes after her plane left New York's LaGuardia Airport.
Passengers had to pull her back into the plane when she was sucked out of the broken window. She died at a Philadelphia hospital after the plane made an emergency landing, authorities said.
Hers was the first death from an in-flight incident in company history, the airline said.
Riordan had dedicated her life to philanthropy, helping others in Albuquerque and the Southwest region, colleagues said.
Read More
CLOSE Passengers from Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 reached Dallas late Tuesday and described what happened when a plane engine blew apart. One woman died. The plane made an emergency landing in Philadelphia. (April 18) AP
Marty Martinez captured photos and video during Southwest Airlines Flight 1380's crash landing Tuesday. (Photo: Marty Martinez, Facebook)
A passenger aboard the Southwest Airlines flight that crashed Tuesday captured video and photos as the plane went down.
Marty Martinez of Texas paid for Wi-Fi to Facebook Live what he believed might have been his "final moments on earth," he said. Thirty minutes into Flight 1380 from La Guardia Airport to Dallas, a jet engine failed.
Reaching for his oxygen mask and hearing "brace for landing," Martinez told CNN he began entering his credit-card information for Wi-Fi as the plane was going down, because he "wanted to be able to reach the people he loved."
Many were trying to log online, but it was difficult to go through the motions amid the chaos, passenger Joe Marcus told CNN Wednesday. The cost for Wi-Fi is $8 in air, according to Southwest's website.
Martinez's Facebook Live video is mostly pixelated, showing him holding a phone with his oxygen mask band over his eye. Another video he took in the plane shows him breathing heavily with his oxygen mask as his eyes dart around.
Martinez told CNN he was sitting in a window seat two rows behind the busted window
that nearly sucked a mother of two out of the plane. She was fatally injured.
"My thoughts and prayers are with her family," he said in a post on Facebook. "I feel very lucky to be alive."
More: Southwest Airlines flight started 'routine' and ended in tragedy: What we know
More: 'She is the bedrock of our family': Mother of 2 died on Southwest flight
More: 'There were a lot of heroes,' says passenger on fatal Southwest flight
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