It likely will be 12 to 15 months before the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) releases its final report into the Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 fatal accident involving an in-flight engine failure and emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport. As always, we at the Foundation encourage all stakeholders and the public to avoid speculating about the cause or causes of the accident and to allow NTSB investigators and parties to the investigation to do their jobs. Speculation causes needless pain to the families involved and does not advance our understanding of this accident or make the industry safer.
But at the same time, I think it is appropriate to commend the way in which the cockpit crew and air traffic controllers handled the situation, working together to get the aircraft on the ground safely. After listening to recordings of the conversations between the pilots and controllers, it’s clear that all involved went about their duties calmly and profess…
