A Bay Area woman is telling of the terrified passengers and crew on board the Alaska Airlines plane 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 large lump and a loud noise.
“It almost felt like you were running over something with a car,” Lawless said.
She says her son saw smoke outside the plane, but she couldn’t bring herself to look to confirm it. She remembers panicked looks from flight attendants and other passengers who called or texted their families to tell them they loved them in case the worst happened. She and her family sat arm in arm, praying.
“My son absolutely told me that he loved me and that [I] was a good mother, and she prepared herself very much for a possible crash, but also knew that it could turn out okay.”
Okay, so the way that flight ended was that the stress of the situation was too much for them to get back on another plane an hour after landing on their original plane.
Alaska Airlines said its maintenance crews were working to diagnose the problem. The airline has changed its description of the incident. On Sunday, it said the plane “had a shutdown,” and on Monday, the airline described it as a “precautionary measure.” The airline did not specify Monday what the change meant.
For Dabney Lawless, the lack of communication left her and her family feeling even more stressed on Sunday night.
“There was really no instruction, no support, no help or no information,” Dabney Lawless said. “You don’t have to provide counseling, but at least you have an airline representative helping out great people and making sure everyone is 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 unknown. Airplanes are designed to fly on one engine,” said Scott Hamilton, an aviation consultant with Leeham Companies.
According to Hamilton, engines are designed to last for several years and pilots perform a visual check of the aircraft and engines before each flight.
“Of course he can’t look deep into the engine, but that’s part of the process.”
Alaska did not provide inspection information when asked. Boeing says the plane left its facilities in 1999, making the aircraft 25 years old.
“At some point the engine will be taken off the wing and a major overhaul will take place. That could take years,” Hamilton said.
