Nature is pityless -- woman sucked out of plane.

[johan]

In a word, cost. And weight. Window material that is as good or better than aluminum at protecting against projectiles already exists. And it weighs a ton. Fit out your 737 with those windows and you wouldn't have to worry about those cramped airline seats anymore. Passengers would have tons of space to stretch out because the plane would likely only be able to lift a dozen or so. Which would of course impact ticket prices. Which brings us back to the word, cost.

All to protect against a problem that is already so rare it hardly qualifies as a problem. At some point you have to draw the line and say its good enough or you'll never accomplish anything.

Well, the Concord had the same problem, and it took a tragedy for the engineers to retrofit the plane with puncture-proof tires.  And, so, I am reluctant to accept the word "impossible," and, so, hopefully, everyone has stopped praying and started working on a more robust design.  I do work for an avionics company, by the way, but not as an engineer.

No one said the word "impossible". But I wouldn't hold my breath on stronger windows. If anything, I would expect tougher requirements for engine failure containment out of this. And even then, I wouldn't hold my breath.

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She died of a heart attack.

Actually the coroner's report came back that she died of blunt impact trauma to her head, neck and torso. 

No heart attack required.

Still a sad loss no matter how one looks at it or what the cause was. Two children lost their mommy and a husband lost his wife.

I'll be curious to know whether she had her seat belt on when the window failed.