Southwest Airlines Flight 1380

A window shatters at 32,000 feet, oxygen masks fall, and a 737 lurches into a violent roll. We walk through the harrowing chain of events aboard Southwest Flight 1380, from the first metallic thud to a high-speed single‑engine landing, unpacking how a tiny fatigue crack and a vulnerable cowling latch combined to break the cabin and the hearts of everyone on board. Along the way, we spotlight the calm precision of Captain Tammy Jo Schultz, the split-second choices around flaps and approach speed, and the heroic teamwork in row 14 where flight attendants and passengers fought brutal wind to pull a woman back inside.

We dig into the NTSB investigation and explain what a fan blade actually does, why visual dye inspections can miss early-stage fatigue, and how counting microscopic striations reveals a crack’s age. Then we map the debris path: a sheared blade driven into cowling latches, doors ripped by airflow, and fragments arcing over the wing to strike a window. You’ll hear how design assumptions about containment can falter when secondary structures fail, and why ultrasonic testing and a cowling redesign became urgent safety upgrades for 737 Next Generation aircraft.

Beyond the technicals, we talk about the human cost and the legacy that followed—legal actions, airline response, and the creation of the Jennifer Riordan Foundation. The story is painful and precise, but it’s also a case study in how aviation gets safer: disciplined crews, honest investigations, and design changes that close the gaps exposed by rare events. If this breakdown moved you or taught you something new about how planes survive the unexpected, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review—what part of the chain surprised you most?

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Special thank you to Lunarfall Audio for producing and doing all the heavy lifting on audio editing since April 13, 2025, the Murder of Christopher Meyer episode https://lunarfallaudio.com/

Transcript

Setup And Crew Background

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There are few things while flying more terrifying than knowing you're gonna crash. The horror of knowing you have maybe seconds to live runs through your brain as the plane gets lower and lower, watching helplessly out the window as the ground rushes closer. The only thing that would be worse is if the cabin suffered explosive depressurization and you get sucked out of the plane, thrown into an uncontrolled free fall with little to no chance of survival. And getting sucked halfway out of a window is exactly what happened to a passenger on Southwest Airlines Flight 1380. So, what happened? I'm Andrew, and this is History's A Disaster. Tonight, we're diving into Southwest Airlines Flight 1380, an accident that ended in the death of one passenger. And tonight's episode is brought to you by Bristly Goldfish Vacuum Cleaners. A vacuum cleaner so strong it can suck a golf ball through a garden hose. With suction this strong, you won't settle for anything less. On april seventeenth, twenty eighteen, Southwest Airlines Flight thirteen eighty was scheduled to fly from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Dallas Love Airfield in Dallas, Texas. It would be their second flight of the day. The plane was being flown by Captain Tammy Joe Schultz, a fifty six year old Navy veteran with eleven thousand seven hundred fifteen total flight hours, with over ten thousand of them in the Boeing seven hundred thirty seven. Captain Schultz was one of the Navy's first female fighter pilots as well as one of the first female pilots to fly the F eighteen Hornet. First Officer Darren Ellisor was a forty four year old Air Force veteran with 9,508 flight hours, with just under 7,000 being on the Boeing seven hundred thirty seven. Also on the completely full flight were one hundred and forty four passengers and three flight attendants, Rachel Fernheimer, Sneak Mallory, and Catherine Sandovo. The cabin crew had been with Southwest Airlines for six and a half, four and two years. The plane they are flying on is an eighteen year old Boeing seven hundred thirty seven seven hundred series, which had logged sixty two thousand five hundred twenty one hours of flying time and thirty seven thousand takeoff and landing cycles, and was powered by two CFM International engines. The weather that day was looking good both in LaGuardia and also in Dallas, so not much expectations of running into any trouble, just another typical flight. At ten forty three, they took off from LaGuardia Airport and started to climb towards Dallas. Fifteen minutes into their flight, they got the clearance to climb up to their cruising altitude of thirty eight thousand feet from air traffic control. But as the plane hit thirty two thousand feet, the shit hit the fan. A loud bang from one of the engines rang through the cabin, followed by the horrific sounds of metal on metal striking the outside of the pressurized cabin. The number one engine on the left side of the plane was breaking apart and throwing metal fragments into the air. The fragments were pounding against the fuselage as one struck a window and shattered both the inner and outer window pane, which caused the cabin to suffer massive depressurization, which we've all seen in some shitty action movie. The plane's cabin is kept at a higher level of air pressure at higher altitudes, where the air pressure outside is much lower. So when a hole is punched in the cabin, the pressure tries to equalize, which means the air and anything not strapped down gets sucked out the hole. The air is ripped from your lungs, breathing becomes a struggle as the atmosphere thins up. The rapid change in pressure drops the temperature quickly, causing a gray mist to fill the cabin. Oxygen masks drop from the ceiling as both passengers and crew struggle to stay in their seats and put their mask on. In the cockpit, with an engine failure and rapid depressurization alarm starting to go off, the plane starts to shake badly enough the flight crew cannot make out the gauges. The engine failure causes the drag on the left wing to grow and the wing starts to dip down, pulling the plane into a roll. The plane rolls just over 40 degrees before the pilots get the plane back under control and pull out of it. They knew there was a problem with the engine and assumed it was an engine fire based on what they believed was smoke in the cockpit. So they called air traffic control to get a flight vector to the nearest airport and start to bring the plane down. They needed to shed some altitude and bring the plane back under control, as well as to equalize the pressure and not need the oxygen mass to breathe. Several nearby smaller fields were rejected based on multiple factors like the possibility of the runway not being long enough for a 737 or the availability of fire and rescue equipment and personnel. So they settled on Philadelphia, 70 miles away. First Officer Ellisor, who was flying at the time, hands over control of the plane to Captain Schultz, which is normal in an emergency. The captain always takes control of the plane and starts going through the emergency checklist for a severe engine failure or fire, which means shutting down engine one before it could do any more damage. As they got closer to Philadelphia, they asked for an extended final approach so they could finish their checklist. And these checklists, while it sounds ridiculous that they're doing checklists in an emergency, they are important to make sure nothing is missed. With the shaking slowed down and the plane's altitude low enough they didn't need the oxygen mask anymore, the flight attendants were able to leave their jump seats and start checking on the passengers. When they hit row 14, they found the passenger in 14A had been pulled out the window. The seatbelt was the only thing preventing Jennifer Reardon from being pulled completely out. Flight attendants Rachel Fernheimer and Seneque Mallory tried unsuccessfully to pull her back in, yelling for help. Andrew Needham, a paramedic and firefighter flying home after a family vacation, jumped in to help, along with rancher Tim McGuinthy. They tried to pull her in, but the 300 mile per hour wind were keeping her pinned to the outside of the plane. They just couldn't get enough leverage to beat the pressure. After informing the pilots what was happening, First Officer Ellisor requested that the plane be slowed down. The decrease in speed eased up the wind speeds enough for them to get Jennifer back in the plane. She was unconscious and unresponsive, and Andrew Needham went straight into performing CPR. They're still 30 miles away from Philadelphia, and the pilots know they need to get on the ground as fast as possible with a passenger's life hanging in the balance. They chose to skip the longer approach and bring the plane in for a landing as quickly as possible, which meant skipping over or straight out admitting the remainder of the checklist. They called air traffic control in Philadelphia to inform them of their situation. At twenty miles out, their altitude is down to 3,000 feet and Captain Schultz prepares to land, setting flaps to 5. The normal for a single engine landing is Flaps 15. At Flats 5, the plane is faster with less drag coming from the flaps. Captain Schultz was putting her fighter pilot experience to work, knowing the faster speed will give her more control over the plane. And since they were working outside of the box, they needed to quickly calculate the right airspeed needed for a Flats 5 landing. There was nothing in their checklist or manuals to help them out with figuring out the airspeed since Flats 5 was a rather unorthodox approach. They were fast approaching the airport at 50 miles per hour faster than normal. It's a high speed approach with only a single working engine, and there was a very real possibility they would not have enough runway to stop, with only one engine putting out reverse thrust to stop the plane. The passengers in the cabin had to brace for what could be a very hard landing. Flight attendant Rachel, unable to make it back to her jump seat, had to brace herself in the aisle with passenger assistance as the landing gear hit the runway. The landing went smoothly and Captain Schultz was able to bring the plane to a stop at the waiting fire and rescue vehicles. Paramedics rushed onto the plane to take over from Andrew Needham, who never stopped giving chest compressions during the emergency. He just braced himself as best he could and kept rendering assistance. The paramedics tried to help and got her to the nearest hospital, however, it was too late. She died in the hospital from blunt force trauma to her head, neck, and upper body. Jennifer would be the first fatality on an American airline in over nine years. Seven other passengers would also be treated for minor injuries. The NTSB quickly got to work with an investigation immediately into what happened. The number one engine looked like it had exploded, but there was no soot or marking to suggest a fire had started. What they did see was a missing fan blade. These fan blades are a critical part of the engine. They're responsible for pushing air into a turbine and powering the engine. The fan blade is also responsible for almost ninety percent of the thrust of the engine. They find evidence of a fatigue crack in the broken section of the fan blade. These fatigue cracks normally start out small and grow and grow until it eventually breaks completely if it's not caught early enough. Now these fan blades are supposed to be checked regularly during routine maintenance. Any kind of damage to the blade showing and it's supposed to get replaced. Same with showing any kind of fatigue. So the investigation digs into the maintenance logs to find out why a fan blade with a fatigue crack was allowed to fly. They found that all routine checks had been made, including a full overhaul of the engine in twenty twelve. During the overhaul, a full inspection was done to all the fan blades, including number thirteen, which is the fan blade that broke. These inspections are done by hand using a special die and lights. Any crack should glow under the light, making it clearly visible to the inspectors. All the fan blades passed the inspection at the overhaul, along with seven more routine checks afterwards. So they dug in deeper to try to determine when the crack had started. To do this, they did a microscopic examination of the broken part and found markings called striation. A striation is formed every time the engine is started up and ran from the intense pressure put on the fan blade. So by counting the striations, with the help of a computer, obviously, they can determine when the crack started based on the number of times the engine had ran. They counted over thirty two thousand striations, meaning the plane had made over thirty two thousand flights since it started, which is roughly six years of flight, putting the crack at possibly happening before the engine went through an overhaul. So the crack had been missed during all of its visual inspections. They eventually determined the fault of the accident lay in the inspection process itself, since they were only using the dies in visual inspections and the use of ultrasound which was available at the time to detect defects in the metal had not been a requirement yet. So now they know what happened to the fan blade, but not what exactly caused all the damage to the engine in the plane. Fan blades do, although very rarely, break. In a normal situation it's contained within the engine and the plane lands normally. And that's when they found another problem with the engines. The latches on the underside of the engine cowling. These latches allow the cowling to be opened up so the mechanics can access and work on the engine. When the eleven pound fan blade broke off, it just happened to be at the perfect spot to be sent straight downward and slam into the cowling over the latches. The latches broke, and when the latches broke, the cowling started to open up and was ripped apart by the wind whipping over the wing. The wind shredded the cowling to pieces. The debris from the cowling flew up over the wing, ripping apart the leading edge of the wing and throwing metal fragments into the fuselage, and one of these pieces struck and broke both the inner and outer pane of glass at row fourteen which had caused the explosive depressurization of the cabin. The NTSB recommended to Boeing that they redesign the engine cowling to prevent this from happening again. This had not been the first time this had happened. There had been a similar incident twenty months earlier on a different Boeing seven hundred thirty seven also flown by Southwest Airlines. The NTSB also pushed for the FAA to require ultrasonic testing for the fan blades to better detect any defects. After the investigation, the plane was released by the NTSB and flown to a service facility in California for repairs. But for whatever reason, it was eventually moved to another storage facility where it was written off as a complete loss and never flown again. Following the accident, Trust in Southwest took a hit and ticket sales took a sharp decline in the last half of 2018, creating a massive decline in revenue for the company. Southwest Airlines paid out$5,000 along with another thousand dollars in travel vouchers to each passenger, which obviously wasn't enough for some people, since 10 passengers would later go on to file lawsuits against Southwest Airlines and Boeing. Lawsuits that would be settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Not among those suing was Mike Reardon, Jennifer's husband. He chose not to sue and kept his grief private along with his two young children. Later in 2018, the Jennifer Reardon Foundation was founded to honor her memory. The 43-year-old Jennifer was the vice president of community relations for Wells Fargo, as well as a prominent member of the Albuquerque community where she lived. She had served on the boards of multiple nonprofit organizations and community projects. So she was very community minded and cared deeply about others. The foundation created in her name provided grants to several nonprofits in 2018 for money that was donated in her name also. The foundation continues her legacy of philanthropy to today. Okay, now backing up just a little bit on these lawsuits, I would have understood, considering his loss, if Mike would have filed a lawsuit. But everyone else, this smells like an opportunistic cash grab. How can you say you're trying to hold someone accountable with these lawsuits when they had already come out and accepted responsibility? Southwest had complied with all safety standards and regulations at the time. Granted, those standards weren't enough, but they had complied. They weren't hiding some stupid shit where they were skipping out on maintenance or covering something up or any dumb shit. Although, yes, it's highly likely that if they would have included the ultrasound testing, the crack would have been caught much earlier and the whole thing could have been avoided. But they didn't do the test because it was not required of them. And as we know, most companies do not go above and beyond, especially if there's a chance that it's going to cost them a little bit more money. Also, having such an experienced flight crew did help to prevent any further loss of life. Now, going after Boeing does make a little more sense since it was their design flaw that caused the accident in the first place, and they would follow up with the proposed recommendations. In 2023, Boeing had completed the redesign process, but needed more time to complete changes to prevent cow latch failures due to operator error. All airlines operating the next generation aircraft, that's the 700 series, are expected by the FAA to implement the new design change by july thirty first, twenty twenty eight. Captain Schultz and First Officer Ellis were commended by Congress for their actions in bringing the plane down safely. They, along with the flight attendants Catherine Sandoval, Sinique Mallory, and Rachel Fernheimer, and passengers Tim Beginti, Andrew Needham, and Peggy Phillips were invited to the White House for a ceremony in the Oval Office thanking them for their heroism. Now, Peggy Phillips, who I failed to bring up earlier, was a retired nurse on the flight who had jumped in to assist with performing CPR along with Andrew Needham. And that was Southwest Airlines Flight thirteen eighty. Thanks for listening. If you liked the show, please consider leaving a rating or review on your app of choice. And you can reach out to the show at historiesandisaster at gmail.com with questions, comments, or suggestions. As well as following the show on social media, you know, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, whatever. And share the episode. Your friends will love it. And as always, pet a penguin. Wear your damn seatbelt. Chase that dream. Live for today, because tomorrow is never guaranteed. Thanks and goodbye. Free audio post production by Alphonic.com