22 minutes of terror: How passengers, pilots kept crippled Southwest Flight 1380 from turning deadlier (2024)

(CNN)Southwest Flight 1380 was above southeastern Pennsylvania, about 20 minutes into its journey, when it happened.

The titanium alloy blade careened through the turbine engine and protective cowling with devastating force. The cowling came apart and plummeted toward Blue Marsh Lake, some 5 miles below.

Within seconds, a piece of the engine hurtled into a window in Row 14, where Jennifer Riordan, a 43-year-old woman making her way home to Albuquerque, New Mexico, was sitting. The window popped out of the fuselage entirely, partially sucking Riordan into the turbulent, arctic air outside.

"Her arms and her body were sucked ... in that direction, from my vantage point," said passenger Marty Martinez, who was in Row 16. "So you see people, from the back of the seat, holding onto her, trying to keep her contained."

The plane, bound for Dallas, had left New York's LaGuardia Airport at 10:27 a.m. Tuesday. The Rev. Timothy Bourman, sitting with his wife near the back, had just finished a Sudoku puzzle when he heard the commotion and saw items flying out Riordan's window. The plane dropped suddenly. He grabbed his wife's hand.

"I just said, 'Jesus ... send your angels,'" he recalled.

Oxygen masks fell from the ceiling. In their panic, many passengers donned them incorrectly. Photos show their noses protruding above the yellow cups that funnel vital oxygen to passengers' lungs when an airplane cabin depressurizes. Other passengers ignored the masks and rushed to Riordan's aid.

The pilot tried to calm the cabin, but amid the screams, the engine noise and the whirling outside air, passengers struggled to hear, said Amy Serafini, who was in Row 15. The plane rolled sharply, 41 degrees to the left, before pilots quickly righted the aircraft.

'Jesus loves you girls'

For the next 22 minutes, the 144 passengers and five crew members wondered if this was the end. Flight attendants, normally paragons of stability when a plane hits rocky air, broke down themselves, some of them crying.

"Everybody was going crazy, and yelling and screaming," Martinez said. "We knew that we were in a really bad place. ... I'm like, 'We're probably not going to make it.'"

Martinez's colleague sat next to him, fixed on his phone. When Martinez looked closer, he noticed his colleague was sending a final goodbye to his wife and unborn son. Martinez was compelled to do the same. But how? He couldn't call or text, he realized, so he began scrambling to access the onboard Wi-Fi to say his own farewells.

"So I Facebook Live'd the whole thing, and was then sending out messages to my mom, my dad, my sister -- all my loved ones back home," he said. "It was absolutely a terrifying experience."

Bourman also thought of his family, namely his three daughters. He wanted to send them a note "from the grave," something to let them know their parents always loved them.

"Never lose your faith in God. Jesus loves you girls," the message read.

Bourman never put on his oxygen mask. A fellow passenger commented on his measured demeanor, but the reverend later said he was terrified.

'I felt a calling'

Several rows in front of Bourman, Riordan's fellow passengers struggled to pull her back from the hole in the fuselage.

Black cowboy hats are often worn by villains in old Westerns, but in this case a hero wore one. Tim McGinty, who works in farm and ranch real estate, rushed to Row 14.

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