There have been six incidents involving airplane windows over the past month, the latest coming on Monday when the co-pilot of a Chinese airliner was partially pulled out of an aircraft in midflight but no major injuries were reported, according to Fox News.
Since mid-April, incidents involving windows and windshields appear to be on the rise. Here are the latest six incidents reported in the news media over the past 30 days.
1. April 17, Southwest Airlines — Banking executive Jennifer Riordan died after an engine exploded during a flight from New York City to Dallas, shattering her window and pulling her partially out of the airplane, according to WCAU-TV. Several passengers held onto Riordan, from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and pulled her back into the plane where they began CPR, the television station said.
The airplane, which had 144 passengers and five crew members on board, made an emergency landing in Philadelphia as Riordan was rushed to a hospital there and was pronounced dead, WCAU-TV said. The medical examiner said that Riordan died from blunt force trauma to the head, neck and torso, the first death in the 51-year history of Southwest.
2. April 18, India Air — Turbulence cracked the window of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, injuring three people shortly after takeoff, scaring 240 passengers, Fox News reported.
The flight, scheduled from Amristar, India, to Delhi, was rocked by turbulence for about 10 to 12 minutes of the 30-minute flight due to bad weather, the network said. The injuries on the flight were described as minor, and the incident remained under investigation by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board.
3. April 25, Flybe — The cockpit windshield crack on a Flybe flight from Newquay Airport to Gatwick Airport in England forcing it to make an emergency landing with 92 passengers, according to the South West News Service. Flybe, a regional airline based in England, reported that the crack happened during a morning flight shortly after takeoff, forcing the pilot to turn back to Newquay in Cornwell, England, per SWNS.
4. May 2, Southwest — A flight from Chicago to Newark was forced to land in Cleveland after a window broke, Fox News reported. Flight 957 landed for maintenance review of the window as 76 passengers on the airplane was moved to another plane, per Fox News. The plane, though, never lost pressure inside the cabin, the airline said in a statement.
5. May 6, JetBlue — A flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Tampa was diverted to Fort Lauderdale after a front cockpit window cracked during flight and landed about 1 p.m., according to the Tampa Bay Times.
JetBlue said that the flight landed safely and the passengers were taken to another jet with no reported injuries.
6. May 14, Sichuan Airlines — The cockpit windshield of a Sichuan Airlines Airbus A319 aircraft detached in midflight, causing the co-pilot to be "sucked halfway" out of the plane at 32,000 feet on May 14, according to Fox News. The carrier confirmed that Flight 3U8633 from Chongqing, China, to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa experienced a "mechanical failure" 30 minutes into the flight, the network said.
Reuters reported that the pilot Liu Chuanjian has been called a hero on social media after safely landing the plane with 119 passengers onboard. The co-pilot, who was wearing a seatbelt, was pulled back into the plane and suffered only scratches and a sprained wrist, the news service reported.
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