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Southwest Airlines cancels dozens of flights for engine inspections after passenger death

The cancellations were voluntary and done as part of an accelerated engine fan blade inspection program announced Tuesday, the airline said in a prepared statement.

Southwest Airlines canceled about 40 flights Sunday to perform fan blade inspections days after a passenger was partially sucked out of a window and killed.

The cancellations were voluntary and part of an accelerated engine fan blade inspection program announced Tuesday, the airline said in a written statement. They were not a result of an emergency airworthiness directive handed down Friday from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The approximately 40 cancellations accounted for about 1 percent of the scheduled 4,000 flights Sunday, Southwest said.

"We have minimized flight disruptions this past week through actions such as proactive aircraft routings to cover open trips, performing inspections overnight, and utilizing spare aircraft, when available," the statement said.

After the tragedy, Southwest announced it would accelerate its inspections and complete ultrasonic scans of CFM56 engines within 30 days.

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On Friday, the FAA ordered ultrasonic inspections of CFM56-7B engines.

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Tuesday's flight marked the second time in recent years that a fan blade on that same type of engine broke on a Southwest plane. There were no injuries on a August 2016 flight, which made an emergency landing.

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Jennifer Riordan, 43, was killed Tuesday when the fan blade broke on Southwest Flight 1380 and caused an engine to fail. Several other passengers reported minor injuries.

The plane was bound for Dallas from New York but made an emergency landing in Philadelphia.

Riordan, a New Mexico bank executive and mother of two, was the first Southwest passenger to die in the Dallas-based airline's 47-year history.