Southwest pilot to air traffic control before emergency landing: 'There's a hole and someone went out'

Mark Makela / Reuters

NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said Tuesday marked the first death on a US passenger airline in over nine years.

• On Tuesday, Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 from New York to Dallas made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport after one of its engines failed and caused an explosion that sent shrapnel into the cabin.
• According to an audio recording obtained by NBC10, the flight's pilot was told a passenger "went out" of the aircraft while it was in the air. 
• Earlier, a family member of a passenger told NBC10 that a woman was partially "drawn out" of the aircraft before she was "pulled back in by other passengers."

On Tuesday, 
Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 from New York to Dallas made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport after one of its engines failed and caused an explosion that sent shrapnel into the cabin.

One passenger died as a result of the accident and seven received minor injuries, the airline said. The deceased passenger has not been identified.

According to an audio recording obtained by NBC, the flight's pilot was told a passenger "went out" of the aircraft while it was in the air. 

The video contains audio from an exchange between the pilot and air traffic control in which the pilot describes the aircraft's condition.

"We have a part of the aircraft missing. So we're going to need to slow down a bit," the pilot said.

Later in the exchange, the pilot says she was told there was a hole in the aircraft which "someone went out."

"They said there is a hole and someone went out," she said. 

Earlier, a family member of a passenger told NBC 10 that a woman was partially "drawn out" of the aircraft before she was "pulled back in by other passengers."

Southwest did not immediately respond to a request for comment about a passenger being sucked out of the aircraft. 

NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said the death was the first on a US passenger airline in over nine years. Prior to Tuesday, the most recent fatal accident came in February 2009 near Buffalo, New York, when an aircraft operated by the now-defunct regional airline Colgan Air crashed and killed 50 people, including 49 on board and one person on the ground. 

The NTSB said on Twitter that it would send a team to investigate Tuesday's crash. 

Read more about the Southwest incident: 

• One person is dead after a major engine failure led a Southwest plane to make a terrifying emergency landing in Philadelphia
• Southwest passenger says there was 'blood everywhere' after 'terrifying' emergency landing
• Southwest passenger's death was the first fatality on a US passenger airline in more than 9 years