Regulators to require inspections after jet engine explosion

U.S. airline regulators said Wednesday they will order inspections on engine fan blades like the one that snapped off and triggered a fatal accident on a Southwest Airlines jet.

A Southwest Airlines plane sits on the runway at the Philadelphia International Airport after it made an emergency landing in Philadelphia, on Tuesday, April 17, 2018. (David Maialetti/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

The move by the Federal Aviation Administration comes nearly a year after the engine manufacturer recommended the additional inspections, and a month after European regulators ordered their airlines to do the work.

Pressure for the FAA to act grew after an engine on a Southwest jet blew apart Tuesday, showering the plane with debris and shattering a window. A woman sitting next to the window died of her injuries. The plane made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.

Federal investigators said a blade that broke off in mid-flight was showing signs of metal fatigue — microscopic cracks that can splinter open under the kind of stress placed on jetliners and their engines.

The engine on a Southwest Airlines plane is inspected as it sits on the runway at the Philadelphia International Airport after it made an emergency landing in Philadelphia, Tuesday, April 17, 2018. (Amanda Bourman via AP)

In this 2017 photo, Jennifer Riordan, of Albuquerque, N.M., poses for a photo in Albuquerque. Family, friends and community leaders are mourning the death of Riordan, a bank executive on a Southwest Airlines jet that blew an engine as she was flying home from a business trip to New York. (Marla Brose/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

The National Transportation Safety Board also blamed metal fatigue in preliminary findings after an engine broke apart on another Southwest Boeing 737 over Florida in 2016.

That led engine manufacturer CFM International, a joint venture of General Electric Co. and France's Safran SA, to recommend last June that airlines conduct the inspections of fan blades on many Boeing 737s.

The FAA proposed making the recommendation mandatory in August but never issued a final decision.

In a brief statement late Wednesday, an FAA official said the agency will issue an order in the next two weeks to require ultrasonic inspection of fan blades on some CFM56-7B engines after they reach a certain number of takeoffs and landings. Blades that fail will have to be replaced, the agency said.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators examine damage to the engine of the Southwest Airlines plane that made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia on Tuesday, April 17, 2018.  (NTSB via AP)

In this Tuesday, April 17, 2018 photo, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator examines damage to the engine of the Southwest Airlines plane that made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia.  (NTSB via AP)

It is not clear how many planes will be affected. Last year, the FAA estimated that an order would cover 220 engines on U.S. airlines. That number could be higher now because more engines have hit the number of flights triggering an inspection.

Southwest announced its own program for similar inspections of its 700-plane fleet over the next month. United Airlines executives said Wednesday that they had begun to inspect some of their planes.

American Airlines has about 300 planes with that type of engine, and Delta Air Lines has about 185. It won't be clear until the FAA issues its rule how many will need inspections.

In this Tuesday, April 17, 2018 frame from video, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator examines damage to the engine of the Southwest Airlines plane that made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia.  (NTSB via AP)

In this Tuesday, April 17, 2018 frame from video, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator examines damage to the engine of the Southwest Airlines plane that made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia.(NTSB via AP)

Tuesday's accident broke a string of eight straight years without a fatal accident involving a U.S. passenger airliner.

"Engine failures like this should not occur," said NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt.

Sumwalt expressed concern about such a destructive engine failure but said he would not yet draw broad conclusions about the safety of CFM56 engines or the entire fleet of Boeing 737s, the most popular airliner ever built.

Federal investigators were still trying to determine how a window came out of the plane. The woman sitting next to the window was wearing a seat belt, but passengers said she was partially blown out of the plane. Philadelphia's medical examiner said she died from blunt impact to her head, neck and torso.

In this Tuesday, April 17, 2018 frame from video, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator examines damage to the engine of the Southwest Airlines plane that made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia. (NTSB via AP)

In this April 17, 2018 photo provided by Marty Martinez, Martinez appears with other passengers after a jet engine blew out on the Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 plane he was flying in from New York to Dallas, resulting in the death of a woman who was nearly sucked from a window during the flight with 149 people aboard.(Marty Martinez via AP)

Family members identified her as 43-year-old Jennifer Riordan, a banking executive and mother of two from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The pilots began a harrowing descent and made an emergency landing in Philadelphia. Investigators said the plane landed at an unusually high speed because the pilots feared losing control if they flew slower.

The leading edge of the left wing was damaged by shrapnel from the engine explosion.

It is unclear whether the FAA's original directive would have forced Southwest to quickly inspect the engine that blew up. CEO Gary Kelly said it had logged only 10,000 cycles since being overhauled.

This April 17, 2018 photo provided by Marty Martinez shows the window that was shattered after a jet engine of a Southwest Airlines airplane blew out at altitude, resulting in the death of a woman who was nearly sucked from the window during the flight of the Boeing 737 bound from New York to Dallas with 149 people aboard, shown after it made an emergency landing in Philadelphia. (Marty Martinez via AP)

This April 17, 2018 photo provided by Marty Martinez shows the window that was shattered after a jet engine of a Southwest Airlines airplane blew out at altitude, resulting in the death of a woman who was nearly sucked from the window during the flight of the Boeing 737 bound from New York to Dallas with 149 people aboard, after it made an emergency landing in Philadelphia. (Marty Martinez via AP)

Before Wednesday's announcement, critics accused the FAA of inaction in the face of a threat to safety.

Robert Clifford, a lawyer who is suing American Airlines over another engine explosion that caused a fire that destroyed the plane, said the FAA should have required the inspections — even if it meant grounding Boeing 737s.

"There is something going on with these engines," he said, "and the statistical likelihood of additional failures exists."

In this April 17, 2018 photo provided by Marty Martinez, Martinez, left, appears with other passengers after a jet engine blew out on the Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 plane he was flying in from New York to Dallas, resulting in the death of a woman who was nearly sucked from a window during the flight with 149 people aboard.  (Marty Martinez via AP)

William Waldock, a safety expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, predicted the FAA's decision. He said the scope of FAA action will depend on whether investigators find fatigue in other fan blades on the broken engine.

"The first thing they probably are going to do is pull every single one of those other blades off and X-ray them to see if they've got a similar type of failure waiting to happen," he said.

The Southwest CEO protested that it is too soon to say whether Tuesday's incident is related to any other engine failures.

Kelly said the plane was inspected on Sunday and nothing appeared out of order. A spokeswoman said it was a visual inspection and oil service of the engines. The NTSB's Sumwalt said, however, that the kind of wear seen where the missing fan blade broke off would not have been visible just by looking at the engine.

There are several types of inspections that planes must go through, ranging from an "A check," which is done about every eight to 10 weeks, to more-rigorous B, C and D checks.

So-called D checks are done roughly every six years for older planes, less frequently for newer ones. It can take weeks and involves taking apart much of the plane for inspection and possible repair or replacement of parts, then putting it back together. Engines are typically removed for work during a D check.

Southwest declined to provide the plane's maintenance records to The Associated Press, but a spokeswoman said that the failed engine had experienced no unscheduled maintenance in the last 60 days.

NTSB investigators plan to visit Southwest headquarters in Dallas next week to inspect maintenance records, Sumwalt said.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Winter rain lashed the Gaza Strip over the weekend, flooding camps with ankle-deep puddles as Palestinians displaced by two years of war attempted to stay dry in tents frayed by months of use.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled for an expected meeting on Monday with U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida about the second phase of the ceasefire. The first phase that took effect on Oct. 10 was meant to bring a surge in humanitarian aid for Gaza, including shelter.

Netanyahu made no public statement as he departed.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, blankets and mattresses were soaked and clay ovens meant for cooking were swamped. Children wearing flip-flops and light clothing waded through puddles as some people used shovels to try to push water out of tents.

"We drowned last night,” said Majdoleen Tarabein, who was displaced from Rafah in southern Gaza. “Puddles formed, and there was a bad smell. The tent flew away. We don’t know what to do or where to go.”

She showed blankets and other items in the tent soaked and covered in mud as she and family members tried to wring them dry by hand.

“When we woke up in the morning, we found that the water had entered the tent,” said Eman Abu Riziq, also displaced in Khan Younis. “These are the mattresses — they are all completely soaked.” She said her family is still reeling from her husband’s recent death, and is further drained by the constant struggle to stay dry.

At least 12 people, including a 2-week-old infant, have died since Dec. 13 from hypothermia or weather-related collapses of war-damaged homes, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government.

Emergency workers have warned people not to stay in damaged buildings because they could collapse. But with much of the territory in rubble, there are few places to escape the rain. The United Nations in July estimated that almost 80% of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged.

Since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began, 414 people have been killed and 1,142 wounded in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry. The overall Palestinian death toll from the war is at least 71,266. The ministry, which does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its count, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community.

Aid deliveries into Gaza are falling far short of the amount called for under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire, according to aid organizations and an Associated Press analysis of the Israeli military’s figures.

The Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid said in the past week that 4,200 trucks with aid entered Gaza, plus eight garbage trucks to assist with sanitation, as well as tents and winter clothing. It refused to elaborate on the number of tents; aid groups have said the need far outstrips the number that have entered.

Since the ceasefire began, approximately 72,000 tents and 403,000 tarps have entered, according to the Shelter Cluster, an international coalition of aid providers led by the Norwegian Refugee Council.

“Harsh winter weather is compounding more than two years of suffering. People in Gaza are surviving in flimsy, waterlogged tents and among ruins. There is nothing inevitable about this. Aid supplies are not being allowed in at the scale required,” Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the top U.N. group overseeing aid in Gaza, wrote on social media.

Though the ceasefire agreement has mostly held, its progress has slowed.

Israel has said it refuses to move to the next phase while the remains of the final hostage killed in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war are still in Gaza. Hamas has said the destruction in Gaza has hampered efforts to find remains.

Challenges in the next phase include the deployment of an international stabilization force, a technocratic governing body for Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas and further Israeli troop withdrawals from the territory.

Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of truce violations.

Abou AlJoud reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

This version corrects to say the ceasefire came into effect on Oct. 10.

Find more of AP’s Israel-Hamas coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

Palestinian children carry sacks filled with firewood as they walk through a displacement camp in Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinian children carry plastic jerrycans filled with water as they walk through a displacement camp in Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians walk along a street lined with war-damaged buildings in the rain, in Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A Palestinian child carries a bag of flour on his back at a makeshift camp on the beach, in Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A temporary camp for displaced Palestinians on the beach, near the port of Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Members of the Al-Ajouri family stand by their tent that was destroyed by a strong wind and rain in Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians receive donated food at a temporary camp for displaced people, on the beach near the port of Gaza City, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)