Nature is pityless -- woman sucked out of plane.

[Jehanne]

Also, the hero worship for the pilot is rather cynical and opportunistic.  She didn’t do anything extraordinary. Her aircraft was not on fire, all onboard systems worked, the plane was aerodynamic sound, and one engine out of two was running normally. There is no asymmetrical lift. Stall speed is not impaired, maneuverability is only minimally impaired. It is rudimentary airmanship to land the aircraft in this condition.  You can’t get a multi-engine private pilot license without demonstrating the ability to handle the situation.

You never know how you will react in a situation like that, no matter how much you train. The fact that she was able to keep her cool and do all the right things is impressive.

She wasn't flying the plane, though; the computers were. At 100 adjustments per second, they stabilized the plane almost immediately. The pilot then took control or at least changed her flight plan to descend to 10,000 feet.

[Joods]

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.

[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.

---

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.

[Anomalocaris]

Also, the hero worship for the pilot is rather cynical and opportunistic.  She didn’t do anything extraordinary. Her aircraft was not on fire, all onboard systems worked, the plane was aerodynamic sound, and one engine out of two was running normally.  There is no asymmetrical lift.   Stall speed is not impaired,  maneuverability is only minimally impaired.  It is rudimentary airmanship to land the aircraft in this condition.  You can’t get a multi-engine private pilot license without demonstrating the ability to handle the situation.

You never know how you will react in a situation like that, no matter how much you train. The fact that she was able to keep her cool and do all the right things is impressive.

If she could, she is qualified as any commercial passenger pilot needs to be.  If she couldn't, she is a menace to aviation safety and has no business flying passengers.

Lionizing people for just being competent and meeting, but not exceeding, professional standards is insane.

---

You never know how you will react in a situation like that, no matter how much you train. The fact that she was able to keep her cool and do all the right things is impressive.

She wasn't flying the plane, though; the computers were.  At 100 adjustments per second, they stabilized the plane almost immediately.  The pilot then took control or at least changed her flight plan to descend to 10,000 feet.

I don't think this model of B737 is obligatory fly by wire.   If she took the plane off autopilot, then she really was flying it, not just giving suggestions to the computer.

[johan]

I'm not familiar with Southwest's ops spec, but I would expect it dictates that so long as the autopilot is functioning normally and its use does not otherwise endanger the flight, it remains in engaged until short final or at the very least until the airport environment is reached. Even in a 20k ft emergency rapid decent, the autopilot will do a better job of it than the pilots could by hand.

Plus what I'm reading is that she was FO on this flight. I've not seen any reports that said she was pilot flying for that leg. And with her doing most of the radio work, I'm going to guess she was actually the pilot not flying during this event. Therefore the captain would have been doing the hard work of punching buttons on the auto pilot. ;-)

[Jehanne]

You never know how you will react in a situation like that, no matter how much you train. The fact that she was able to keep her cool and do all the right things is impressive.

If she could, she is qualified as any commercial passenger pilot needs to be.  If she couldn't, she is a menace to aviation safety and has no business flying passengers.

Lionizing people for just being competent and meeting, but not exceeding, professional standards is insane.

---

She wasn't flying the plane, though; the computers were.  At 100 adjustments per second, they stabilized the plane almost immediately.  The pilot then took control or at least changed her flight plan to descend to 10,000 feet.

I don't think this model of B737 is obligatory fly by wire.   If she took the plane off autopilot, then she really was flying it, not just giving suggestions to the computer.

All modern aircraft are fly by wire. The Boeing aircraft (unlike Airbus) have retained the traditional yokes but they are simulated to make things "look and feel" like the hydraulic systems of yesteryear.

[Anomalocaris]

If she could, she is qualified as any commercial passenger pilot needs to be.  If she couldn't, she is a menace to aviation safety and has no business flying passengers.

Lionizing people for just being competent and meeting, but not exceeding, professional standards is insane.

---

I don't think this model of B737 is obligatory fly by wire.   If she took the plane off autopilot, then she really was flying it, not just giving suggestions to the computer.

All modern aircraft are fly by wire.  The Boeing aircraft (unlike Airbus) have retained the traditional yokes but they are simulated to make things "look and feel" like the hydraulic systems of yesteryear.

The particular engine that failed was manufactured in 1995.   I assume that is how old the plane is as well.  

Having fly by wire does not mean it is obligatory FBW.  Older passenger aircraft models Re-designed for FBW during early FBW era remain aerodynamically stable and retain analogue flight control as backup capability. Also, Boeing aircraft have a different design philosophy from Airbus. Airbus gives FBW absolute veto over pilot decisions, while Boeing aircraft have pilot absolute veto over FBW. Both Boeing and Airbus aircraft have crashed with fatal results when the absolute veto authority was wrong and the pilot in the case of airbus, and the computer in the case of Boeing, was right.

So if she was flying the Boeing, even if FBW was engaged, she still could have crashed it, as Korean airline's hugely experienced pilot with 10000 hours did when he override the FBW on a 777.

[johan]

The 737 was first certified back in the 1960's. Decades before fly by wire systems were even thought of for transport category aircraft. The 737-700 series was certified in the mid-90's and incorporated many design changes compared to the original 737 systems. But I don't believe fly by wire was not one of them. Old fashion mechanical hydraulic same as it ever was.

[vorlon13]

Apparently no injuries (or worse) but Southwest has had a window fail and the plane made emergency landing in Cleveland.

[Anomalocaris]

In the month since the original story, at least 3 other commercial passenger planes around the world also suffered inflight window failures, 2 in the cockpit.  The latest instance in China also involve a person being sucked halfway out and then dragged back in.  In this case the co-pilot.