NTSB recommends Boeing redesign and retrofit engine casing on thousands of 737s

Reported today on The Seattle Times

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NTSB recommends Boeing redesign and retrofit engine casing on thousands of 737s

After investigating an engine blowout that killed a Southwest Airlines passenger last year, federal safety officials on Tuesday said Boeing should be required to redesign the engine casing on its 737 NG airplanes, and airlines should retrofit more than 6,800 planes currently in service worldwide.

In a terrifying incident in April 2018, the left engine of the 737 exploded and flying metal broke a passenger window. Jennifer Riordan, 43, a mother of two children, was partially sucked out of the airplane.

The cause was a fan blade in the left engine that broke off and sent metal shrapnel ripping through the engine casing, piercing the fuselage and causing the cabin to decompress. Part of the engine cowl struck and broke the window by Riordan's seat.

She died as a result of her injuries, the sole fatality on board a U.S. airline in the past decade.

The tragedy raised questions about safety oversight because of a similar engine explosion on a different Southwest flight 19 months earlier. After that earlier incident the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mandated inspections of engine fan blades - but the inspections failed to detect the cracked fan blade that caused the fatal accident.

At a public hearing Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) laid out its investigation into Southwest flight 1380, which departed from New York City bound for Dallas, but diverted to Philadelphia after the engine explosion.

The NTSB issued a series of recommendations, including that the FAA require Boeing to redesign the casing around the engine to prevent penetration by hot metal shrapnel in the event of an engine explosion.

On flight 1380, it was the disintegration of the fan cowl th

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