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Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 flight to Houston returns to Denver after engine cover tears away during takeoff

PHOENIX — A flight that took off from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport headed to Columbus was forced to return to the airport shortly after take-off due to a mechanical issue, according to officials. A representative with Southwest Airlines confirmed to 12News that Flight #5850 experienced a mechanical issue right after leaving the Phoenix airport. The nature of the mechanical issue was not specified. The aircraft landed "without incident" upon return to the airport, the representative said. The aircraft will undergo a maintenance review. "We’ll accommodate Customers onboard on a separate aircraft, scheduled to arrive in Columbus approximately two and a...

A passenger suffering an apparent “mental health emergency” popped an overwing emergency exit on a Southwest plane in New Orleans and jumped to the ramp Sunday evening. Airport police were called to the gate after ground personnel detained the passenger. No one was hurt but the passenger was described as being “incoherent.” “When deputies made contact with the man, they found he was incoherent and not fully aware of his surroundings,” a news release from the police said. He was still in the hospital on Monday for evaluation. Southwest said everyone did everything right in the incident. “We commend our...

Delta, American, United and Southwest Airlines have discovered that unapproved jet engine parts with fake safety certificates have been installed inside their planes. The airline companies and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency have claimed that AOG Technics, a leading global aircraft support provider to the air transport industry, sold them the fake parts. The airlines stated that AOG Technics falsified the required airworthiness documents for the spare parts and mass-produced artificial safety certificates in order to sell its engine parts to them. Parts sold by the problematic company have been found in 126 engines across the airlines and several...

About 100 planes around the world have been caught up in a scandal that would be cartoonish if it weren’t so terrifying. It saw a dubious company, with fake employees and an address that was a glorified PO box, sell and distribute fake airplane parts that ended up in planes belonging to some of the world’s biggest airlines. On Thursday night, American Airlines became the fourth, and so far final, airline to have found parts from AOG Technics in its aircraft. Southwest kicked off the disclosures from various airlines around the world in early September, when it became the first...

A record string of daily highs over 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) in Phoenix ended Monday as the dangerous heat wave that suffocated the Southwest throughout July receded slightly with cooling monsoon rains. The historic heat began blasting the region in June, stretching from Texas across New Mexico and Arizona and into California’s desert. Phoenix and its suburbs sweltered more and longer than most, with several records including the 31 consecutive days of 110 degrees Fahrenheit-plus (43.4 degrees Celsius) weather. The previous record was 18 straight days, set in 1974. The streak was finally broken Monday, when the high...

A social media user waiting to board a Southwest flight recently cried foul over an apparent “pre-boarding scam” involving wheelchairs — while the airliner stresses that its policy complies with the law. Passengers are known to get antsy boarding and exiting planes, but Paul, whose Twitter handle is @trendready, complained about how some fellow flyers are possibly attempting to game the system by requesting wheelchair assistance and be the first ones on a flight before takeoff. “Pre-boarding scam at @SouthwestAir,” he claimed in a Saturday tweet with a photo of a line of people lined up in wheelchairs. “20 passengers...

Southwest loses another legal battle over religious liberty. ... Southwest Airlines’ legal troubles over its discrimination against a pro-life flight attendant continued recently when a federal judge denied the company’s request for a new trial. Charlene Carter previously won a $5.1 million judgment against Southwest and the Transportation Workers Union of America (TWU) in July 2022 after she was fired from her job six years ago for objecting to her local union’s support for abortion, as LifeSiteNews previously reported. District Judge Brantley Starr also recently ordered Southwest to turn over documents, as Carter’s attorneys allege the airline is not following...

A Southwest Airlines passenger on board a flight to Orlando, Florida, was recorded screaming and swearing at the parents of a child that wouldn't stop crying. The epic tantrum - thrown by the grown man, not the toddler - left other passengers in hysterics as he screamed about the baby's consistent crying for 45 minutes. The ordeal unfolded when their flight was forced into a holding pattern around the area outside Palm Beach due to a bad weather front. Clearly frustrated by the wailing infant, the man started his raucous rant about how he paid a ticket to have a...

Southwest Airlines resumed all departures on Tuesday morning after a brief ground stop due to technology issues impacted its operations. "We should hopefully be resuming our operation as soon as possible," Southwest said on Twitter in response to a traveler asking if there was a nationwide ground stop. More than 1,200 Southwest flights were delayed as of 10:45 a.m. ET, according to FlightAware. The Federal Aviation Administration said in a tweet that "Southwest Airlines requested the FAA pause the airline’s departures."

A pilot had a medical emergency on a Southwest Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Columbus, Ohio today. The pilot was removed from the flight deck when this occurred, according to a spokesperson for the airline, and a pilot from another airline who happened to be on board “assisted with radio communication” with the other Southwest pilot commanded the aircraft. This incident was first reported on Twitter by Charlotte-based American Airlines Airbus first officer Josh Yoder. The aircraft initially departed on schedule, flew out over Utah north of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, before returning to the gate in Las Vegas...

A Southwest Airlines plane carrying 147 passengers to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, sustained engine trouble after hitting birds, forcing it to return to Havana for an emergency landing Sunday, according to NBC News. Officials said Southwest Airlines Flight 3923 "experienced bird strikes to an engine and the aircraft's nose shortly after takeoff," resulting in smoke filling the cabin. According to Cuban Aviation Corporation S.A., Cuba's civil aviation authority, pilots became aware of the Boeing 737 engine issues after the collision with the birds. A cellphone video filmed in the cabin made its way through social media, showing passengers panicking as the...

A Southwest flight was diverted from Raleigh-Durham International Airport, leaving passengers stranded with no information or food in a closed Myrtle Beach airport overnight — along with a full plane of fellow travelers. The 9-hour ordeal involving Southwest flight 3094 included three passengers vomiting as the plane shook “like crazy,” recounted one North Carolina couple on board. Another person, the couple said, had a panic attack and passed out on the plane amid its wild approach into Raleigh — which was aborted at the last second at 1,350 feet, according to flight data. “It was quite a horrifying experience. We...

The top lawmakers on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee called out Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg during a Thursday hearing on the Southwest Airlines meltdown. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the committee’s chairwoman, said that the Department of Transportation (DOT) isn’t doing enough to crack down on poor airline service. “This sector needs a more effective policeman on the beat. They need someone over at the Department of Transportation who is going to get the job done,” Cantwell said in her opening remarks. Buttigieg has come under fire from some Democrats and consumer advocates who say that he hasn’t been...

Was the Southwest debacle "the perfect storm"? No, it was not.While you're still stuck at some crowded airport -- perhaps one where the police are telling you that you're trespassing -- the apologies have begun. Southwest Airlines CEO Robert Jordan finally, after more than two days of chaos, offered a heartfelt video of apology. I'm sorry. I meant an utterly robotic video of an apology written, it appeared, by a lawyer. On the heels of wide-scale disruptions, we're working diligently to Safely recover our operation & accommodate displaced Customers & Crews. We know this is unacceptable & sincerely apologize. If...

The epic breakdown of management at Southwest Airlines over the past several days, which resulted in not just passengers, but crews and airplanes ready to fly but unable to file the requisite paperwork owing to information systems failure, will be studied in business schools for many years to come. The proximate causes of this catastrophic breakdown – antiquated computer systems for scheduling .. and partially eschewing a hub-and-spoke route structure – have been widely discussed in the media. But a few important details have largely escaped notice. Management Information Systems (MIS).. Southwest has avoided heavy investment in computerized MIS for...

Southwest Airlines Co. LUV 3.70%increase; green up pointing triangle executives said the airline is removing limits on ticket sales, rebuilding crew schedules and shuttling baggage as it gears up to resume its full flying schedule on Friday. The airline canceled nearly two-thirds of its flights Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, part of an effort to dig out from a cascading meltdown after last week’s severe winter storm threw it into disarray. While other airlines were able to recover from the brutal weather within a few days, Southwest continued to spiral. Southwest has canceled more than 15,000 flights in the past week,...

Progressives are taking aim at Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg over the Southwest airlines holiday travel fiasco that continues to cause mass delays and cancellations across the country, urging further scrutiny of the department’s practices. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a leading left-wing lawmaker on Capitol Hill, took to Twitter on Thursday to question the Transportation Department’s handling of the debacle that left travelers deserted and frenzied and administration officials scrambling.

Travelers relying on Southwest Airlines to get them home were mostly still stranded Thursday morning, barely 24-hours after Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg publicly upbraided the carrier and warned it to do better – or else. AP reports exhausted Southwest passengers were looking for alternative carriers or even renting cars to get them on their way as the airline’s CEO said it could be next week before the flight fiasco is over. By late Wednesday afternoon on the East Coast some 90 percent of all canceled flights in the U.S. were on Southwest, according to the FlightAware tracking service. Conditions had...

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Cavuto: Coast to Coast,” Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) called for Congress and the Department of Transportation to investigate the flight issues Southwest Airlines has had, pointed out that the airline industry received large sums of taxpayer funds during the pandemic, and stated that Congress needs to know where that money went. Wenstrup said, “The complaints that we’re hearing about are, with the refunds, for example, by law, they’re required to make the refund almost immediately for people…but you mentioned it, $54 billion from the federal government to the airline industry. So, where...