CBS News
Engine covering falls off Boeing plane, strikes wing flap during Southwest Airlines flight Denver takeoff
An engine covering fell off a Boeing plane and hit the plane’s wing flap as the Houston-bound Southwest Airlines flight took off from Denver International Airport on Sunday morning, officials said.
Southwest Airlines Flight 3695 safely returned to the airport around 8:15 a.m. local time following the incident, and the Boeing 737-800 was towed to the gate, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane was headed to Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport.
The incident could be heard on air traffic control recordings.
“Let’s go ahead and declare an emergency for Southwest 3695, and we’d like an immediate return,” an air traffic control official could be heard saying on the recording. “We’ve got a piece of the engine cowling hanging off apparently.”
A cowling is a removable engine cover.
The passengers on the flight will arrive in Houston via another aircraft, a Southwest spokesperson said. They’re set to arrive about three hours behind schedule. More than 130 passengers were on the flight.
A Southwest maintenance team is inspecting the plane, and the FAA will also investigate, officials said.
The plane was delivered in 2015, according to FAA records, and the aircraft manufacturer CFM made the engine.
Southwest had more than 200 737-800 planes as of June 30, 2023. The average age of its fleet is approximately 12 years, according to the company.
Boeing has been under review in recent months after a door panel blew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 jet during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.
In February, officials from the Federal Aviation Administration said they would step up inspections of Boeing. In a report later that month, the agency said a panel of government and aviation industry experts had “found a lack of awareness of safety-related metrics at all levels” of Boeing, adding that “employees had difficulty distinguishing the differences among various measuring methods, their purpose and outcomes.”
In February, passengers on board a Boeing 757-200 described seeing a wing coming apart. In March, a United Airlines Boeing 777 plane lost a tire shortly after takeoff from San Francisco International Airport. Also last month, a Boeing United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Paris was diverted to Denver due to an engine issue.
Kathryn Krupnik contributed reporting.
NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were attacked in New York City on Friday night, authorities said.
The incident occurred just before 9 p.m. on Second Avenue near East 96th Street on the Upper East Side, according to the New York City Police Department.
Police said officers were sent to the scene after an assault was reported. When officers arrived, police say they found a 20-year-old man suffering from facial injuries and a 70-year-old man who had head pain. Both victims were taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the former governor said the two were attacked while “taking a walk around the block near their home by some individuals that had a previous interaction with his stepson.”
The spokesperson said that they were injured “but were able to fight off their attackers.”
Both were taken to Cornell Hospital “as a precaution,” he added.
Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The 70-year-old Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor from 2008 to 2010, stepping into the post after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer following his prostitution scandal. He made history at the time as the state’s first-ever Black and legally blind governor.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
A 17-year-old boy was critically injured and a person is in custody after a gunman opened fire on a SEPTA bus in North Philadelphia Friday evening, police said.
At around 6:15 p.m., Philadelphia police were notified about a shooting on a SEPTA bus traveling on Allegheny Avenue near 3rd and 4th streets in North Philadelphia, Inspector D F Pace told CBS News Philadelphia.
There were an estimated 30 people on the bus at the time of the shooting, Pace said, but only the 17-year-old boy was believed to have been shot. Investigators said they believe it was a targeted attack on the teenager and that he was shot in the back of the bus at close range.
According to Pace, the SEPTA bus driver alerted a control center about the shooting, which then relayed the message to Philadelphia police, who responded to the scene shortly.
Officers arrived at the scene and found at least one spent shell casing and blood on the bus, but no shooting victim, Pace said. Investigators later discovered the 17-year-old had been taken to Temple University Hospital where he is said to be in critical condition, according to police.
CBS Philadelphia
Through their preliminary investigation, police learned those involved in the SEPTA shooting may have fled in a silver-colored Kia.
Authorities then found a car matching the description of the Kia speeding in the area and a pursuit began, Pace said. Police got help from a PPD helicopter as they followed the Kia, which ended up crashing at 5th and Greenwood streets in East Mount Airy. Pace said the Kia crashed into a parked car.
The driver of the crashed car ran away but police were still able to take them into custody, Pace said.
Investigators believe there was a second person involved in the shooting who ran from the car before it crashed. Police said they believe this person escaped near Allegheny Avenue and 4th Street, leaving a coat behind.
According to Pace, police also found a gun and a group of spent shell casings believed to be involved in the shooting in the same area.
“It’s very possible that there may have been a shooting inside the bus and also shots fired from outside of the bus toward the bus,” Pace said, “We’re still trying to piece all that together at this time.”
This is an active investigation and police are reviewing surveillance footage from the SEPTA bus.