Featured Map for 29 August 2016:
Southwest Airlines 3472 Engine Failure

Saturday morning (27 August 2016), Southwest Airlines flight 3472 from New Orléans to Orlando suffered a failure involving the #1 engine while climbing above 31,700 feet on its way to a cruise altitude of 39,000 feet. Debris from the failure punctured the fuselage resulting in depressurization; the flight declared an emergency and diverted to Pensacola. None of the 99 passengers and five crew were injured.

The Aviation Herald reported that the NTSB initially described the failure as an "uncontained engine failure" though photographs appear to show an intact fan and spinner with the inlet portion of the nacelle missing, which suggests something other than an uncontained engine failure. The failure took place over the Gulf of México so debris recovery may be troublesome but hopefully the remaining portions of the engine and nacelle will provide sufficient evidence.

Today's Featured Map shows the direct path along with the more northerly path taken by the flight up to and after the accident.

References and additional information:

• N766SW - 27-Aug-2016 - KMSY-KMCO – FlightAware
• Southwest Flight Lands Safely After Major Engine Malfunction – The Wall Street Journal (Jon Ostrower) (27 August 2016)
• Orlando-bound Southwest Airlines flight diverted after major engine issue – Orlando News - WESH Channel 2 (27 August 2016)
• Accident: Southwest B737 near Pensacola on Aug 27th 2016, uncontained engine failure – The Aviation Herald (27 August 2016)
• Southwest Airlines
• N766SW Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-784(WL) - cn 29806 / 537 – Planespotters.net

Updates:

• Update on Flight 3472 and working with the NTSB – The Southwest Airlines Community
• NTSB_Newsroom on Twitter (29 August 2016)
• NTSB Identification: DCA16FA217 – National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)