Passenger sues Southwest Airlines over fatal engine explosion

A lawsuit against Southwest Airlines Co. has been filed by a passenger who was flying on the airline’s flight 1380 of Tuesday, April 17, 2018 in which an engine exploded and one person was killed.
The lawsuit claims that since the accident, the passenger, Lilia Chavez, has suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and other personal injuries.
The lawsuit was filed on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Dallas-based Southwest has been under intense scrutiny in the days since a CFM56-7B engine on one of its Boeing 737-700 jets blew apart during a, shattering a plane window and flinging shrapnel.
Passenger Jennifer Riordan, one of 149 people aboard, was killed. The incident has raised concerns about the safety of similar engines.
“Our focus remains on working with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to support their investigation.
We can’t comment on any pending litigation. The safety and security of our employees and customers is our highest priority at all times,” said the airline”
Also named in the suit are France’s Safran S.A., General Electric Aviation and CFM International, the manufacturers behind the engine that broke apart.
CFM is a transatlantic joint-venture co-owned by GE and Safran.
The suit claims that Southwest and the engine makers had “placed profits and business” over passenger safety and continued to operate the engine “even when there was confirmation that an unsafe condition existed.”
After the incident, European regulators gave airlines nine months to check the engines. U.S. regulators were still were considering what to do after proposing some checks.
“Despite knowing of the dangerous condition of the subject aircraft’s engine, the defendants risked the lives of more than a hundred innocent passengers including Chavez,” the filing reads.
The incident marked the first fatality on a U.S. commercial passenger airline since 2009.
Southwest shares closed up 0.4 percent. They have lost 18.2 per cent year to date.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has issued an All Operators Letter (AOL) 070 requiring mandatory compliance with the FAA Emergency Airworthiness Directive by all operators in Nigeria forthwith.
The AOL which was endorsed by Engr. Kayode Ajiboye on behalf of the director general of NCAA, Capt. Muhtar Usman dated 23rd April, 2018 addressed to all airlines and aircraft owners is for immediate compliance.
The issuance was an aftermath of the incident involving South West Airlines.
“Upon the receipt of FAA Emergency Airworthiness Directive AD 2018-09-51, NCAA swung into action by carrying out a review on all the airlines to determine the operators of aircraft type with CFM56-7B engines that are essentially affected by the circular.
“It was established that only two operators have the aircraft type in question in their fleet…but they are yet to reach the 30,000 cycles to which the Emergency Airworthiness Directive requires immediate ultrasonic inspection of the fan blades within 20 days.
“However the Authority went ahead to notify all the Nigerian operators about this development to enable them carry out the required inspection when it is eventually due,” said spokesman for NCAA, Mr. Sam Adurogboye in a press statement.
He assured that NCAA will continue to enforce compliance with Safety Regulations at all times for a safer aviation adding that any violations will be treated in line with the provisions of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (NCARs).