Southwest Flight 1380 was traveling from New York to Dallas when an engine blew after takeoff, causing debris to break one window and strike a female passenger. She was almost sucked out of the broken window when Tim McGinty, a REALTOR® from Dallas, sprung into action.
McGinty was seated across the aisle from the woman. McGinty told NBCDFW.com he watched as the woman—who was later identified as Jennifer Riordan, a 43-year-old Wells Fargo exec—was “flying out the window” as the window became “a vacuum.”
McGinty tried to pull Riordan back in. Her body up to her waist had been sucked out the window, despite still being buckled into her seat.
“I wasn’t strong enough,” McGinty said, wearing a cowboy hat and a bandage on his arm. “A fireman, from Celina, Texas, jumped in there and helped, and between the two of us we were able to get her back in.” The fireman was Andrew Needum.
Once both men were able to pull her back in, a nurse on board administered CPR, but Riordan did not survive, becoming the flight's only casualty.
The pilot of the Boeing 737 aircraft, which was carrying 149 passengers, made an emergency landing in Philadelphia. The pilot, Tammie Jo Shults, a former Navy pilot, has been credited for her fast thinking and safe landing of the plane.
McGinty’s wife Kristen was also on the plane sitting next to her husband when she saw him rush to help pull Riordan back into the aircraft. “Some heroes wear capes, but mine wears a cowboy hat,” Kristen told
USA Today.
McGinty is a farm and ranch real estate professional with Clayton-Waggoner Properties in Dallas.
Source: “Hero Cowboy, Firefighter Together Pulled Mom Who Was Sucked Out of Southwest Flight Back Inside,” USA Today (April 18, 2018) and “Texas REALTOR®, Firefighter Saved Woman From ‘Flying Out the Window’ on Southwest Flight,” NBCDFW.com (April 18, 2018)
