Southwest flight victim’s death attributed to impact trauma

Author: Associated Press
Published: Updated:
National Transportation Safety Board investigators examine damage to the engine of the Southwest Airlines plane that made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia on Tuesday, April 17, 2018. The Southwest Airlines jet blew the engine at 32,000 feet and got hit by shrapnel that smashed a window, setting off a desperate scramble by passengers to save a woman from getting sucked out. She later died, and seven others were injured. (NTSB via AP)

Philadelphia’s medical examiner says that a woman killed when she was partially blown out of a Southwest Airlines plane died of blunt impact trauma to her head, neck and torso.

MORE: Southwest passengers pulled woman partially sucked out of window back into plane

Spokesman James Garrow of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health said Wednesday evening that Jennifer Riordan’s death was ruled accidental.

Riordan was killed and seven others were injured after the twin-engine 737 blew an engine at 30,000 feet Tuesday and got hit by shrapnel.

Federal investigators are still trying to figure out how the window came out of the plane. National Transportation Safety Board chairman Robert Sumwalt says that the woman was wearing a seatbelt and sitting next to the window.

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