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Southwest Cancels 40 Flights Due to Engine Inspections

On Sunday, 40 of the Dallas-based carrier's flights were canceled due to engine inspections following a deadly incident on a flight earlier this week, the company said in a statement.
Credit: DOMINICK REUTER/AFP/Getty Images
A Southwest Airlines jet sits on the runway at Philadelphia International Airport after it was forced to land with an engine failure, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 17, 2018.

If you're flying Southwest soon, keep an eye on your flight status.

On Sunday, the Dallas-based carrier canceled about 40 flights as it continued engine inspections following a deadly incident on a flight earlier this week, the company said in a statement.

The cancellations, however, only made up one percent of Southwest's nearly 4,000 flights Sunday, according to the statement.

According to FlightAware.com, 488 Southwest flights were being delayed Sunday, though it was not clear how many of those delays were due to engine inspections.

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

The cancellations weren't making too much of an impact at Dallas Love Field, where one flight had been canceled and three were delayed.

Southwest is undergoing voluntary "accelerated" fan-blade inspections on their planes' engines after one blew apart from a plane on Tuesday, killing a passenger on a flight from New York to Dallas.

A window on the plane was blown out during the incident, and the passenger, Jennifer Riordan, was partially sucked out of the plane, which made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.

Riordan died of blunt force trauma, according to the Philadelphia medical examiner.

NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said investigators found evidence of "metal fatigue" on one of the fan blades on the engine that blew apart, prompting the inspections.

The Federal Aviation Administration is also requiring inspections of certain CFM56-7B engines, the type involved in the Southwest flight Tuesday.

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