Passengers Witness Engine Cover Peel Away on Southwest Boeing 737, Forcing Emergency Return To Denver

by Gary Leff

This morning Southwest Airlines flight 3695 from Denver to Houston was forced to return to Denver when an engine cowling detached and struck the wing flap of the Boeing 737-800 shortly after takeoff.

The metal covering of one of the engines separated around 8 a.m. local time, after the plane left the ground. Passenger video shows the engine cover peeling away and impacting the aircraft’s wing flap. The plane returned to Denver around 25 minutes after takeoff and was towed to the gate.

Southwest Airlines referred to it as a “mechanical issue” and sent passengers on their way to Houston Hobby airport on an alternate aircraft with a three hour delay. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.

Here’s the Southwest flight asking air traffic control for an immediate return to Denver, “We’ve got a piece of engine cowling hanging off, apparently.”

According to the FAA,

Southwest Airlines Flight 3695 returned safely to Denver International Airport around 8:15 a.m. local time on Sunday, April 7, after the pilot reported the engine cowling fell off during takeoff and struck the wing flap. The Boeing 737-800 was towed to the gate. The aircraft was headed to William P. Hobby Airport in Houston. The FAA will investigate. Please contact the airline for additional information.

Southwest Airlines offered,

Southwest Flight 3695 returned to Denver International Airport this morning and landed safely after experiencing a mechanical issue. We’re working now to get customers on their way to Houston on another aircraft. Our Maintenance teams are reviewing the aircraft.

While an incident on board a Boeing 737, this is not a new aircraft where the issue likely points to Boeing, nor another Pratt & Whitney engine issue since Southwest uses CFM56 are well-tested and without the issues we’ve seen with LEAP-1A Airbus engines. In other words, this doesn’t appear to be ‘another Boeing’ or ‘another engine’ issue story.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  2. Clearly a maintenance issue. The airlines are getting more and more sloppy. Deregulation has been a disaster.

  3. Skilled labor is not cheap … cheap labor is not skilled .

    Don’t employ Brandon’s immigrants in airplane maintenance .

  4. Southwest appears to be wanting to join United with an FAA safety audit.
    There have been multiple engine incidents in addition to the LGA landing error.

  5. Flying is safer than driving. I’m staying off the roads now. I think that future travel is safest on amtrak and carnival cruise line. Follow the science in safe travel miles stats, right?

  6. The airlines are saving/ making money
    Flying peons don’t matter as long as they make their profits
    Bodies in bodies out sometimes in body bags

  7. “Deregulation has been a disaster.”
    Yeah….because our government is so much better run. Just what we need.

  8. this mishap has nothing to do with deregulation (which was in 1978, 46 years ago)
    Lets wait for the DOT to tell us why it happened.

  9. @WileyDog – deregulation only means the government doesn’t tell airlines where they can fly and what they can charge, has nothing to do with maintenance and safety.

  10. “Alert”, that you are not. It takes several years and some serious training and testing to become a certified mechanic. Please provide the slightest shred of evidence this has anything to do with immigrants, or that they are related to the current president, his thuggish predecessor or anyone else ever in office.

  12. The maintenance people from South west should do their job
    Or !
    Maybe is campaign of sabotage against Boeing!?
    The standards for inspections should be well defined and double check people work before the plane is approved to fly
    Good luck
    As on aerospace engineer with 43 years of experience I never saw such high level of number of failures related to maintenance.
    South west and other airlines are getting what they are paying.

  13. Gary, please do either one of the following: 1) Permanently censor @drrichard from making ridiculous, disgusting, and vile political comments on your TRAVEL BLOG; or 2) Provide a way for the rest of us to permanently mute him.

  14. If Southwest joins United with an FAA safety audit, why wouldn’t Delta be there too? They had a panel detach inflight and they also lost a wheel a few months ago.

    Legitimate question, but is it the availability of video footage or photos that determines the audit? Fortunately for Delta, there wasn’t much media coverage. I’m guessing that’s why FAA didn’t get more involved.

  15. Hey TexasTJ –

    If you really believe politics doesn’t belong on a travel blog, then you would also request that Alert be muted. You’re not, which proves you are an idiot. Stay in Texas, sweetie.

  16. Calling sitting president names and mocking him is of course fine but how dare you call our savior a thugg? That is ridiculous, disgusting, and vile. How dare!!!

  17. “Alert” is Not political . “Alert” is merely realistic . In fact , the state of Texas health providers are going broke treating the myriad of Brandon’s immigrants , and soon there will be no health care for anyone , PLUS a public health emergency . Brandon is messing everyone up .

  18. Mark,
    the questions the FAA considered in whether to do a safety audit of UA involve the number,
    frequency, severity and preventability of incidents while many people are simply saying that the numbers are about the same for multiple airlines. UA had more incidents in a shorter period of time – they operate the fewest flights of the big 4 – and appear to be more systemic in nature. The FAA knows that there are a certain number of expected incidents. They are undoubtedly interested in incidents that involve human error or material failure that could be seen again.
    Let’s let the FAA’s decision stand for itself but WN has had more issues that at least raise the potential of triggering an FAA safety review.
    The FAA could be busy for the next few months or UA itself could be the sole target of an audit which could bring their operations in line w/ not only what the FAA expects to see but also similar to other airlines based on factors the FAA considers

  19. @Tim Dunn … +1 . Also , these are good examples why regulators are needed , including overseeing maintenance and manufacturing . The more regulators looking over their shoulders , the better for everyone . This is where the budget ought to be increased … not politicians’ earmarks freebies for their districts .

  20. Agreed that this is, most likely, a Southwest maintenance issue and not a Boeing issue. AMT’s are well trained before they can get their FAA certificate. There could be a myriad of reasons but my guess would be that the rush by revenue management to get the jet back in the air (sounds like a Boeing manufacturing issue now!!) is leading to the lack of proper oversight/inspection of the ATM’s work. People make mistakes and that’s why there are supposed to be checks and balances in their work. Politics has NOTHING to do with this incident and the stupid people that say that are just that…stupid! I recall taking a recently overhauled 737 for a test spin after heavy maintenance. After the walk around, the captain asked the ATM supervisor, “So, are you married?” “Yes sir, wife and two boys.” “Where do you like to go with the family?” We love going to Florida for a few days!” “Would you put your wife and kids on this jet?” “You bet I would!” “Push this SOB out of the hanger and get aboard!”

  21. @ Tim Dunn: “the questions the FAA considered in whether to do a safety audit of UA involve the number,
    frequency, severity and preventability of incidents while many people are simply saying that the numbers are about the same for multiple airlines. UA had more incidents in a shorter period of time – they operate the fewest flights of the big 4 – and appear to be more systemic in nature. The FAA knows that there are a certain number of expected incidents. They are undoubtedly interested in incidents that involve human error or material failure that could be seen again.”

    According to Cranky today: “Think about it this way. United had 335,114 departures scheduled between January 1 and March 22… and 20 of those flights had problems. That is 0.006 percent.
    This is also not just isolated to United. The Aviation Herald shows Delta with 13 and American with 14 during the same time period. Heck, just yesterday Southwest had an engine cowling fly off.

    Tim, I think you were over your skis on this one.

  22. Brandon’s immigrants are an existential threat to you and your family’s safety. Everywhere. The streets, taxis, subways, trains, planes. Any suggestion to the contrary is naive to the point of delusional.

Comments are closed.