"We could feel the air from the outside coming in, and then we had smoke kind of coming in the window. Meanwhile, you have passengers that were in that aisle, trying to attend to the woman that was bleeding from the window explosion," he said. "That was just chaos all around."
The plane descended precipitously, Johnson said, but the pilot regained control and informed passengers the flight was headed to Philadelphia.
"The crew did a great job," he said. The flight tracking website FlightRadar24 estimated the Boeing 737-700 descended from 31,684 feet to about 10,000 feet in a little over five minutes. Kelly told reporters Tuesday evening the plane was inspected April 15, but he had no details on what parts were examined.
"I'm not aware of any issues with the airplane or any issues with the engine involved," Kelly said at a news conference. The engine had 40,000 cycles on it, a quarter of those since it was overhauled, he said. Seven others hurt
It was a rough landing, Martinez said, and things were still so chaotic that he wasn't sure if the plane was going to crash. The jet could have been landing on a freeway for all he knew, he said.
"I didn't know if we were going to be running into a building. I didn't know what state the plane or even the pilot was in, if we were in condition to land," he said. "It was just all incredibly traumatic, and finally when we ... came to a halt, of course, the entire crowd was (in) tears and people crying and we were just thankful to be alive."
Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel said earlier that one of the 149 passengers and crew members on board was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Seven others were treated for minor injuries.
Feds begin investigation
Sumwalt said the airliner's flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder were sent to Washington. The flight data recorder showed the plane was at 32,500 feet when the engine failed about 20 minutes into the flight.
Sumwalt said part of the inquiry will look at the CFM International 56 turbofan engine. Last year the FAA issued an airworthiness directive on the CFM56-7B version that would have required inspection of the fan blades.
"There are various iterations of that (engine) and so I can't say exactly what that airworthiness directive might have applied to at this point, but that will be part of our investigation," he said.
Later he said the cowling for the engine was found about 70 miles from where the plane landed. In August 2016, a Southwest Airlines 737 flying from New Orleans to Orlando was forced to make an emergency landing in Pensacola, Florida, when an engine failed.
Southwest said this is the first death from an in-flight incident in company history. Boeing said it is providing technical assistance in the investigation.
CORRECTION: This story has been revised to correctly describe the CFM International 56 engine on the Southwest jet