Southwest Cancels 40 Flights During Engine Inspections

Southwest Airlines canceled about 40 flights on Sunday as it worked its way through jet engine fan blade inspections following the death of a passenger who was nearly sucked out of a window broken by a projectile from a mid-flight explosion.

The voluntary cancellations were part of Southwest's accelerated CFM56 engine fan blade inspections announced by the airline, the Dallas Morning News reported, and were separate from an emergency airworthiness directive by the Federal Aviation Administration on Friday for inspections within 20 days. Several airlines use the engines.

"We have minimized flight disruptions this past week through actions such as proactive aircraft routings to cover open trips, performing inspections overnight, and utilizing spare aircraft, when available," said the Southwest website.

Jennifer Riordan, 43, a New Mexico bank executive, was killed on Tuesday when a fan blade broke off on Southwest Flight 1380, causing an engine to fail and piercing the cabin where Riordan was sitting, the Morning News said. Several other passengers reported minor injuries.

The plane had taken off from New York City on its way to Dallas, but made an emergency landing in Philadelphia after the explosion.

CNN reported the FAA and the European Aviation Safety Agency each issued an emergency airworthiness directive requiring airlines to perform inspections of certain CFM56-7B engines within 20 days.

The FAA and EASA directives came on the same day that the engine manufacturer, CFM International, issued a service bulletin recommending the CFM56-7B engine be inspected more frequently, CNN said.

"CFM recommends ultrasonic inspections within the next 20 days to fan blades of CFM56-7B engines with more than 30,000 cycles since new," the directive stated, per CNN. "Also, it recommends inspections by the end of August for fan blades with 20,000 cycles, and inspections to all other fan blades when they reach 20,000 cycles."

There are roughly 680 engines that will be impacted, CFM International said.

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