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I’m confused and admit upfront I know nothing of aircraft operations. But, what about the broken window, losing air pressure in the cabin, and a woman who died? Was it really that routine to land a damaged plane, where was not simply a matter of losing an engine but also flying a damaged aircraft with one good engine?

I was on a Southwest flight that lost air pressure in 2014. A valve stuck open somewhere on the plane, masks dropped and the plane descended to FL100 and burned off fuel before landing. Great job by the pilots.

Southwest sent all of us a $300 unrestricted voucher for delaying the arrival due to mechanical reasons. Same voucher I would have gotten for any 3+ hour delay, whether in the terminal or in the air. IIRC it's an FAA directive.

Chincey? Probably. But they followed FAA regulations exactly. Had I wanted to sue, I believe I could have.

I suspect that there are no regulations on reparations for killing your passengers. This is a generous first step for delayed passengers, but it is not the end of the financial repercussions for Southwest.

Keep in mind that I have flown over 2 million miles on Southwest, and somewhere north of 1800 take offs.

The most challenging thing about the flight was the psychological aspect of it. Unnerved passengers, broken window, engine blown, smoke beginning to fill the cabin, the rapid descent, a woman with half of her torso sticking out of the airplane .. - if you ignore all that, and a trained pilot will, the protocol to follow was fairly routine. The plane was never in any real danger. What could have been dangerous was losing the other engine and/or losing flight controls. In fact I will say losing flight controls, meaning losing the ability to control the plane, is the single most dangerous thing that can happen to an airplane. With one engine blown you can still fly to a nearby airport and land safely. With both blown in a twin engine but the controls intact, the plane can be made to fly like a glider and made to land on a flat surface. But if you lose controls (rudder, ailerons, vertical stabilizer etc) you are very likely going to crash. Modern airplanes have a lot of built in redundancies so losing all controls is an unlikely scenario. In this case though the typical passenger inside the plane wouldn't have known - from declaring emergency to landing - it was a very routine operation. Descend rapidly to 10,000 ft where the air is breathable and then follow procedures to bring plane in for landing. Almost all of it done by autopilot.