On Tuesday at 11:19 a.m., Southwest flight 1380 came to a gentle stop on the Philadelphia International Airport tarmac. First responders rushed onto the aircraft, greeted with relief and chaos from the 144 passengers and five crew members aboard, who experienced a situation out of a nightmare.

The four-hour New York to Dallas flight climbed to its 30,000 foot cruising altitude when disaster struck. In a sudden brutal explosion, a fan blade detached and tore apart the left engine of the Boeing 737 in a cloud of shrapnel as the powerful turbine sucked it in. Debris violently gouged open a window of row 14, and in the rapid depressurization that followed, the suction partly pulled a passenger through the gaping hole.

As oxygen masks dropped and passengers prayed, Captain Tammie Jo Shults coordinated with air traffic control and rerouted the plane, calmly stating that they were “not on fire, but part of it’s missing.”

Asking for medical personnel to be ready for the injured, Shults told air traffic control that “they said there’s a hole, and uh, someone went out.”

In an act of heroism, and with what one passenger described to the Associated Press as “nerves of steel,” retired Navy pilot Tammie Jo Shults saved the lives of 148 passengers.

Jennifer Riordan, 43, a mother traveling from Albuquerque, was the passenger seated next to the shattered window. Her injuries sustained from being partially pulled from the plane led to her death, shortly after they removed her from the plane via stretcher. 

“She was vivacious. She was the energy in the room but not the overwhelming energy. She just had an aura and a positive karma about her,” her sister-in-law Marianne Riordan told the Burlington Free Press. 

As the National Transportation Safety Board conducts their investigation into the engine failure, more information will come out helping to explain why this tragedy took place and Riordan’s life was lost.

“I know people want answers right away,” said NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt. “Right now, we just want to document everything we can.”

With a visual inspection of the engine having taken place two days prior to the flight, the failure is being attributed to an interior crack on an engine blade consistent with metal fatigue.

As someone who travels frequently and has spent many hours becoming very comfortable with air travel, these infrequent scenarios always elicit mixed feelings.

It’s shocking of course, but there is a sense of understanding as well. Whenever you set foot inside a plane, bus, train or any other complicated machine crafted by man to move us from point A to point B, there has to be an understanding that something may go wrong. 

It’s because of pilots such as Shults that I am not cancelling my 40+ hours of air travel I have arranged this summer. In situations like these, where an engine explodes 30,000 feet in the air, I’m reminded that no matter how advanced the technology and time we live in, things still go wrong.

People will assign blame as they always do, fingers will be pointed and as the investigation continues I have no doubt someone will take legal action. However, at the end of the day, Shults saved 148 lives. One was lost. Let us remember Riordan, and be thankful for Shults whose actions prevented the loss of many more.