Audio from pilot of plane that lost engine fuselage just after takeoff: “We're going to declare an emergency”

Recordings of exchanges between the control tower and the cabin revealed what moments were on board Southwest Airlines Flight 3695 When a The engine fuse was disassembled On departure in Denver (United States) and struck the wing ailerons on Sunday.

He Boeing 737-800 Houston Hobby Airport with 135 passengers and six crew members. It rises to about 3,140 meters 25 minutes after departure before returning.

“We are at the 10,000 level. Can we go down?” The pilot asked the control tower when he detected a problem with the aircraft. “Everything is fine for now. We don't even know the nature of the problem“, he added, “but apparently many passengers and flight attendants asked Something hit the wing hard”.

In fact, videos recorded by passengers showed one of the plane's wings flapping in the air.

“Let me know if you want to initiate an emergency, but I think we'll do it anyway,” replied the controller, who immediately understood the sensitivity of the situation and tried to facilitate the pilots' tasks at all times.

Finally, the pilot confirmed: “We're going to go ahead and declare an emergency South West 3695. Also, we would like to return immediately. We have a piece of the engine fuselage hanging off, apparently”.

According to a report Federal Civil Aviation Agency (FAA), opened an investigation into the incident, and the crew discovered that the engine hood had fallen off during takeoff. had an impact with lobes of the wing of the plane.

The lobes They are devices located on the edge of the wing that, when changing position, allow to increase the anti-air surface and cooperate in the support of the device or in its resistance.

The controller then instructed the aircraft to return to the airport. “As soon as we can” And asked how many people were on board and the amount of fuel.

“We have 135 passengers. We have six employees and two lap babies. There are 143 souls on board. Now we have about 22.9 in fuel. “That gives a rough estimate of about five hours of fuel,” said the pilot.

The controller initially indicated landing on one runway, but the pilot requested another runway due to concerns about the aircraft's aerodynamics and weight, which was still carrying a large amount of fuel.

“As you can imagine we are busy here.”At one point the pilot asked to keep the fire engines ready.

“We want them to check us after we land and make sure we don't have any structural problems,” he said.

No one was injured in the incident and the Southwest Flight 3695 returned safely to Denver International Airport It was towed to the gate around 8:15 a.m. local time (1415 GMT) on Sunday.

The company described the incident “Engine Trouble” And said passengers were distributed on other flights.

Boeing declined to comment on the incident.

The 737-800 belongs to the previous generation of the best-selling 737, known as the 737 NG, which was replaced by the 737 MAX.

American giant Boeing Been in the eye of the hurricane for years, then Two accidents occurred in 2018 and 2019 The existence of more than 350 deaths and many quality and safety problems with their planes.

In early January, A blind door on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 split in midair.

Last month, US aviation regulators gave Boeing 90 days to present a plan to resolve its aircraft's quality control issues.