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Emergency personnel monitor the damaged engine of Southwest Airlines Flight 1380, which diverted to the Philadelphia International Airport this morning after the airline crew reported damage to one of the aircraft’s engines, on a runway in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania U.S. April 17, 2018.
Mark Makela | Reuters
Federal safety officials on Tuesday recommended Boeing rejigger the design of thousands of its popular 737 planes to better withstand the impact of engine failures.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s recommendations come after its examination of Southwest Flight 1380. During the April 2018 flight, a fan blade broke off one of the engines, punctured a three-panel window and briefly sucked a passenger out of the plane. The passenger died, becoming the first accident-related fatality on a U.S. airline in almost a decade.
Boeing shares were off more than 1% after the NTSB’s recommendations, released in Washington D.C. during the body’s vote on the probable cause of the deadly incident on the flight. The NTSB also recommended that airlines retrofit their aircraft with the new engine covers.
Boeing and Southwest, which operates an all-Boeing 737-fleet, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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