A San Francisco Bay Area woman is reporting frightened passengers and flight crew aboard the Alaska Airlines flight that was returning to Seattle Tacoma International Airport due to engine failure.
Dabney Lawless was on the plane with her husband and 13-year-old son. She described feeling a big jolt and a loud noise.
“It almost felt like driving a car over something,” Lawless said.
She says her son saw smoke outside the plane, but she couldn’t bring herself to look. She remembers panicked looks from flight attendants and other passengers, who called or texted their families to tell them they loved them if the worst happened. She and her family stood arm in arm and prayed.
“My son wanted to tell me very clearly that he loved me and that I was a good mother. He was preparing himself for a possible breakdown, but also knew that everything could be okay.”
Okay, that’s how the flight ended, but the stress of the situation was too great for them to board another plane an hour after their first plane landed.
Alaska Airlines says its maintenance teams are working to diagnose the problem. The airline has changed its description of the incident. On Sunday it said the plane had been “shut down,” and on Monday the airline spoke of a “precautionary shutdown.” When asked on Monday, the airline did not provide any information about what the change means.
For Dabney Lawless, the lack of communication added to the stress she and her family felt Sunday night.
“There was really no direction, no support, no help, no information,” said Dabney Lawless. “You don’t have to offer advice, but at least there was an airline representative there to take care of people and make sure everyone was OK.”
KIRO 7 spoke to several aviation experts who described the situation as a “precautionary emergency landing.”
“Engine failures are not common, but they are not unheard of. Airplanes are designed to fly on one engine,” said Scott Hamilton, an aviation consultant at Leeham Companies.
Hamilton says the engines are designed to last for several years and that pilots will conduct a visual inspection of the aircraft and its engines before each flight.
“Of course he can’t look deep inside the engine, but that’s part of the tour.”
Alaska did not provide inspection information when asked. Boeing says the plane left the facility in 1999, making it 25 years old.
“At some point the engine will be removed from the wing and a major overhaul will take place and that could take several years,” said Hamilton.
