Between long lines, TSA, and delays – flying is generally already a nerve-wracking experience. Unfortunately, passengers aboard a Southwest Airlines plane heading from Denver, Colorado to Houston, Texas had that anxiety cranked to 11. The Sunday morning flight was leaving the Denver International Airport when an engine covering fell off the Boeing 737 plane and hit the plane’s wing flap.
The flight’s crew reported to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the engine cowling fell off during takeoff, and struck the wing flap. The FAA also says that the Boeing 737-800 plane returned to Denver safely around 8:15 AM and was towed to the gate. Passengers took another plane to Huston and arrived about three hours behind schedule.
“We apologized to those Customers for the inconvenience of their delay and our Maintenance teams are reviewing the aircraft. We place our highest priority on ultimate Safety for our Customers and Employees,” the airline said in a statement. The FAA is currently investigating the incident.
Video Evidence
Footage recorded inside the plane corroborates these reports, showing metal peeling off and flapping in the wind during take-off. As well as the recording of traffic control discussing the damage.
“Let’s go ahead and declare an emergency for Southwest 3695, and we’d like an immediate return,” says an air traffic control official. “We’ve got a piece of the engine cowling hanging off apparently.”
Boeing
While this incident is alarming, it’s also the latest of a disturbing pattern in Boeing planes. On April 4th, another Boeing 737 flying with Southwest, suffered an engine fire. That flight was from Lubbock, Texas bound for Las Vegas, Nevada but had to be returned to the gate before take-off.
On March 7th, a Boeing 777 flying with United Airlines from San Fransico, California to Osaka, Japan lost a tire during take-off. However, that flight made it safely to LAX where passengers were switched to a new plane. Thankfully, no one was injured, but the wayward tire did cause some serious damage to some vehicles.
On January 5th, the door blew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 flying with Alaska Airlines. This led to all Max 9s being temporarily grounded.
We’ll keep you posted on updates about this situation as they become available.
