A Southwest Airlines flight that was about to take off from Dallas Love Field Airport in Texas over the weekend was struck with a bullet around 9:50 pm on Friday night while still on the tarmac in a bizarre shooting incident that could have political motivations.
According to local media reports, passengers had to deplane and board another aircraft after the jet for Southwest Airlines Flight 2494 was hit with gunfire near the cockpit and entry door.
Southwest immediately launched a full inspection of the plane, including the right side, right below the flight deck where the bullet hit. Nobody was injured, thankfully, and Flight 2494 was safely taxied back to the terminal, a Southwest spokesperson confirmed.
Early reports say the suspected shooter "remains at large" while the situation is investigated.
"The pilot came on just before takeoff and said that he had heard a rattling outside of the plane and that they were electing to turn back to the gate so that the mechanical team could check out the plane before we took off," said James Lee, who was on the plane with his family.
Neither Lee nor any of his other family members heard any noise when the bullet is said to have struck the aircraft. All they know is that they were turned around and taken back to the terminal to board a different aircraft for reasons that at the time remained unknown to them.
"They were very calm," added Shannon Lee about how everyone on the plane remained calm as the crew did an excellent job of keeping everyone even-keeled and patient throughout the process.
"They didn't let us know that anything was amiss. We just thought it was probably a mechanical issue that Southwest missed on a first inspection or something. They kept everybody very calm on board, which I think was wise."
"It's pretty shocking and really scary," Shannon continued.
(Related: Remember during COVID when Southwest employees staged a "sickout" to protest the company's Wuhan coronavirus [COVID-19] "vaccination" mandate?)
It took all the way until 2 am after the Lee family had already landed at their destination that they found out about the gunfire
The runway in question was shut down while police investigated the situation. Dallas Police have not yet indicated whether or not they believe the gunfire was random or targeted specifically at someone or some ones on the plane.
"They didn't know what they were dealing with," said Ron McCallum, a pilot and aviation expert who commended the pilots on the plane for making the decision to return to the terminal. "It was a good decision that they went back."
"[The pilot's] job is safety first, always should be, always will be. So taxiing out with that much experience, if you hear a noise that's unusual in a 737 or whatever the make and model of the aircraft is, you're going to make a decision as the captain whether to continue the flight or return to base."
While the Lee family is grateful everything went smoothly, they are concerned about the fact that Southwest did not tell them what had happened before they boarded the second plane. Had the Lee family known a bullet was involved, they would not have boarded the second plane.
"That's the concerning part, I think, is just that they went ahead and chose for us to put us on another plane without our knowledge of the actual events."
As compensation for the ordeal, Southwest offered every passenger on the affected flight a voucher to use for a future flight.
"This is, I think, hopefully, going to be an isolated event that's unrelated to anything intentional," McCallum added.
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