Southwest Airlines sought more time last year to inspect its engines after a similar explosion to the one that saw a woman partially sucked out of a plane window, it has emerged.
The company said it needed longer than 12 months to carry out inspections of certain fan blades after an engine blew up on another Southwest flight in 2016.
US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration, has not yet required airlines to conduct the inspections but now says it will do so in the next two weeks.
On Tuesday, Jennifer Riordan, 43, died after an engine failed on Southwest Flight 1380 and debris smashed the window beside her seat.
Witnesses said Mrs Riordan, who was a mother-of-two from Albuquerque and an executive at Wells Fargo bank, was pulled out of the aircraft to her waist after the window broke.
The plane, a Boeing 737 bound from New York to Dallas with 149 people aboard, made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.
Investigators are still trying to determine how the window came out of the plane.
Mrs Riordan, who was in a window seat on the 14th row, was wearing a seat belt at the time.
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Philadelphia's medical examiner said her cause of death was blunt trauma to the head, neck and torso
Investigators said the blade that broke off mid-flight and triggered the fatal accident was showing signs of metal fatigue, with microscopic cracks identified.
The National Transportation Safety Board also blamed metal fatigue for the previous engine failure on a Southwest plane in Florida in 2016 that was able to land safely.
The FAA said it would issue a directive in the next two weeks to require ultrasonic inspections of fan blades on some plane engines after they reach a certain number of take-offs and landings.
Blades that fail inspection would need to be replaced.
Last year, the FAA estimated that its order would cover 220 engines on US airlines.
However that number could be higher now because more engines have hit the number of flights triggering an inspection.
Southwest announced its own programme for similar inspections of its 700-plane fleet over the next month.
More from US
United Airlines said it has begun inspecting some of its planes, while American Airlines has about 300 planes with a similar type of engine.
Tuesday's emergency broke a string of eight straight years without a fatal accident involving a US airliner.
Southwest Airlines sought more time last year to inspect its engines after a similar explosion to the one that saw a woman partially sucked out of a plane window, it has emerged.
The company said it needed longer than 12 months to carry out inspections of certain fan blades after an engine blew up on another Southwest flight in 2016.
US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration, has not yet required airlines to conduct the inspections but now says it will do so in the next two weeks.
On Tuesday, Jennifer Riordan, 43, died after an engine failed on Southwest Flight 1380 and debris smashed the window beside her seat.
Witnesses said Mrs Riordan, who was a mother-of-two from Albuquerque and an executive at Wells Fargo bank, was pulled out of the aircraft to her waist after the window broke.
The plane, a Boeing 737 bound from New York to Dallas with 149 people aboard, made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.
Investigators are still trying to determine how the window came out of the plane.
Mrs Riordan, who was in a window seat on the 14th row, was wearing a seat belt at the time.
:: Hero pilot praised for 'nerves of steel' was US navy trailblazer
Philadelphia's medical examiner said her cause of death was blunt trauma to the head, neck and torso
Investigators said the blade that broke off mid-flight and triggered the fatal accident was showing signs of metal fatigue, with microscopic cracks identified.
The National Transportation Safety Board also blamed metal fatigue for the previous engine failure on a Southwest plane in Florida in 2016 that was able to land safely.
The FAA said it would issue a directive in the next two weeks to require ultrasonic inspections of fan blades on some plane engines after they reach a certain number of take-offs and landings.
Blades that fail inspection would need to be replaced.
Last year, the FAA estimated that its order would cover 220 engines on US airlines.
However that number could be higher now because more engines have hit the number of flights triggering an inspection.
Southwest announced its own programme for similar inspections of its 700-plane fleet over the next month.
More from US
United Airlines said it has begun inspecting some of its planes, while American Airlines has about 300 planes with a similar type of engine.
Tuesday's emergency broke a string of eight straight years without a fatal accident involving a US airliner.
