Southwest Airlines plane makes emergency landing

A Southwest Airlines plane with 76 passengers on board made an emergency landing in the US city of Cleveland after one of its windows cracked.

The incident comes after flying debris from a failed engine on another Southwest flight blew out a window, leaving a passenger dead after she was partially sucked out. Seven others were injured in the incident April 17.

There were no injuries reported on Wednesday after Flight 957, a Boeing 737, landed safely.

The plane heading from Chicago to New Jersey was forced to make an abrupt turn while flying over Lake Erie.

Southwest did not immediately reveal why the window cracked but said the crew decided to divert the plane "for maintenance review of one of the multiple layers of a window pane."

'Pilots did not declare an emergency'

Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Brandy King said on Wednesday the plane never lost cabin pressure, which would have caused oxygen masks to drop down for passengers, and that the pilots did not declare an emergency before landing.

King said there were no other mechanical problems with the plane, which was taken out of service. The airline was making arrangements to fly the passengers to New Jersey on another plane.

Dallas-based Southwest has seen a drop in ticket sales since last month's incident. The airline estimates the drop in sales will cost it between $50 million (€42 million) and $100 million.

Federal authorities have ordered inspections of more jet engines like the one that blew apart at 32,000 feet two weeks back.

ap/sms (AP, dpa)

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