'Some heroes wear capes, mine wears a cowboy hat': Wife hails bravery of husband who tried to save plane victim

THE family of the woman who died after she was sucked of the window of doomed Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 have sent a heartbreaking message to the survivors.

Jennifer Riordan, 43, was dragged back into the plane by other passengers who tried to resuscitate her, but died from her injuries.

Her sister-in-law Marianne said she was beyond grateful to the people who tried to help the Wells Fargo bank executive. “Thank you that she didn’t go flying out the window and we wouldn’t have her,” she told the Boston Herald from her home in Williston, Vermont. “She was much more than a statistic.

“Those people ... I’m sorry that they’ll probably have images in their head that they’ll never forget, but Jennifer would be the first to say your job is to keep living, and live well.

“Obviously, God needed her. Hopefully, she’s somebody’s guardian angel now.”

Marianne, who also paid tribute to the calm actions of pilot Tammie Jo Shults, said her heart broke for Ms Riordan’s husband Michael and their two children.

“They had a wonderful, wonderful life. Literally had the world at their feet,” she said. “The ‘how’ this could happen — I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to put that to rest. The randomness and bizarre illogicalness of this is what I can’t wrap my arms around. I just can’t make sense of it. It’s breathtaking.

“I wish we could turn back time.”

The wife of a passenger who tried to save the woman who died on the doomed Southwest Airlines flight praised her husband’s bravery. “Some heroes wear capes, mine wears a cowboy hat,” said Kristin McGinty after she and husband Tim made it back home.

Mr McGinty dragged Ms Riordan back through the window after she was partially sucked out after the engine of Flight 1380 failed at 30,000 feet.

The farm and ranch real estate worker, who was seated a few rows in front of the window across the aisle, helped his wife put on her oxygen mask and was holding her hand when shrapnel hit the glass and it exploded.

Ms Riordan was sucked out, but quick-thinking Mr McGinty rushed to pull her back into the plane, with firefighter Andrew Needum’s assistance.

“A guy helped and we got her pulled in and they tried to resuscitate her,” Mr McGinty told USA Today.

Mr Needum and retired nurse Peggy Phillips gave the mother of two CPR, but they could not revive her.

Ms Phillips said Ms Riordan, from New Mexico, suffered “significant head trauma, facial trauma” after she was dragged out of the window.

“If you can possibly imagine going through the window of an aeroplane at about 600mph (965km/h), and hitting either the fuselage or the wing with your body, with your face ... I can probably tell you that there was significant trauma to the body,” said Ms Phillips.

Passenger Marty Martinez told CNN objects began to fly out of the hole in the window and “passengers right next to her were holding on to” the woman being pulled out. “And meanwhile, there was blood all over this man’s hands. He was tending to her,” Mr Martinez said.

Passengers tried to plug the hole in the window as the plane started to plummet and tilt in turbulence.

Ms Riordan died from her injuries and seven other passengers were injured during the catastrophe on the flight from New York to Dallas.

The Boeing 737 suffered engine failure shortly after taking off from New York’s La Guardia Airport. Ms Phillips said the 143 passengers on board knew something was not right early on.

“All of us thought this might be it. Shortly after takeoff we heard a loud noise and the plane started shaking like nothing I’ve ever experienced before,” she said. “It sounded like the plane was coming apart. It was terrifying.”

Parts flew out of the failing engine and shattered the window in row 17, causing depressurisation of the cabin that sucked the businesswoman out of the plane.

The pilots put the plane into a dive to provide breathable air for the 149 people on board before making an emergency landing in Philadelphia.

A piece of the engine was later found nearly 100km away on the ground in Pennsylvania.

“I just remember holding my husband’s hand, and we just prayed and prayed and prayed,” said passenger Amanda Bourman, from New York.

Passengers praised the “American hero” pilot Tammie Jo Shults, 56, who flew the plane to safety. In a message to air traffic control, she calmly called for assistance.

In audio of the air traffic control radio call obtained by NBC Philadelphia, Ms Shults can be heard calmly describing the horrifying situation.

“We have a part of the aircraft missing, so we’re going to need to slow down a bit,” she said. “We have a part of the plane missing. So we’re going to need to slow down a bit ... They said there is a hole and someone went out.”

National Transportation Safety Board chairman Robert Sumwalt said the number 13 fan blade was separated and missing from the engine. The blade broke off from the point where it would come into the hub and there was evidence of metal fatigue, he said.

As a precaution, Southwest said on Tuesday night that it would inspect similar engines in its fleet over the next 30 days.

On Wednesday morning, a bird strike forced another Southwest Airlines jet to make an emergency landing in Nashville, Tennessee. The airline said the pilot of Flight 577 from Nashville to Phoenix declared an emergency after the bird hit the plan and landed safely at Nashville International Airport.

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