Coroner reveals tragic details of death of mother 'sucked out of plane window'
A coroner has revealed details about the death of a woman killed after she was partially sucked out of a damaged plane window after an engine blew mid-air.
Mother-of-two Jennifer Riordan died on Tuesday after one of the engines on the Dallas-bound Southwest Airlines flight exploded and hurled shrapnel while the plane was traveling 800 km/h at 30,000 feet with 149 people on board.
She was killed by blunt impact trauma to her head, neck and torso and her death was ruled accidental, according to James Garrow, spokesman for the Philadelphia Department of Health.
Riordan’s death generated an outpouring of grief and public sympathy from Albuquerque business leaders, state elected officials, educators, writers and activists — all who portrayed Riordan as gracious and selfless.
“Jennifer’s vibrancy, passion, and love infused our community and reached across our country,” her family said.
The heroes who tried to save woman partially sucked out of plane window
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“Her impact on everything and everyone she touched can never be fully measured. But foremost, she is the bedrock of our family.”
Retired nurse Peggy Phillips, Texas firefighter Andrew Needum and rancher Tim McGinity came together to try to save Ms Riordan when the flight suffered major engine failure.
Ms Phillips was sitting in a row in front of Ms Riordan when the drama unfolded.
“The window had broken and the suction, the negative pressure, had pulled her outside the plane partially,” Ms Phillips told reporters following the horror flight.
“These two wonderful men [Needum and McGinity], the EMT and a passenger managed to get her back inside the plane and we lay her down and we started CPR.”
Mr McGinty said he helped his wife and a friend put on their oxygen masks before he saw Ms Riordan struggling to stay in the plane.
He grabbed her with his right arm and tried to pull her back into the window, but the force from outside the plane was too strong.
Captain Tammie Jo Shults, one of the first women fighter pilots in the US Navy, has also been hailed as a hero for calmly landing the stricken passenger jet after the mid-air engine explosion that killed the mother-of-two.
An audio recording revealed a calm, unflappable Shults requesting medical assistance and telling air traffic control part of the aircraft was missing as she guided the jet and the 149 people on board into an emergency landing.
"This is a true American Hero," wrote passenger Diana McBride Self on Facebook.
Overnight, experts examined one of the plane’s engines, finding a fan blade inside had broken apart mid-flight.
