File photo of a Southwest Airlines plane.
| Photo Credit: AP

A bullet struck the body of a Southwest Airlines airplane preparing for departure from a Dallas airport, forcing the cancellation of the Friday (November 15, 2024) evening flight, the airline said.

No injuries were reported and law enforcement was contacted after the bullet struck the right side of the aircraft just under the flight deck. At the time, the crew of Flight 2494 was preparing the plane for departure from Dallas Love Field Airport, Southwest said in a statement.

The Boeing 737-800 aircraft was “struck by gunfire near the cockpit” around 8:30 p.m. while taxiing before the flight to Indianapolis International Airport. The plane returned to the gate and the passengers exited, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

The aircraft was removed from service, according to the airline, which said it would provide another flight for the passengers.

Dallas Love Field Airport said in a social media post that the Dallas Police Department responded and runway 13R/31L was closed, but reponed later Friday night with “minimal impact” on the facility’s operations.

There were no reported injuries. (Representational image)

IndiGo co-founder Rakesh Gangwal has been appointed as the Chairman of American carrier Southwest Airlines.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Billionaire and IndiGo co-founder Rakesh Gangwal has been appointed as the Chairman of American carrier Southwest Airlines.

Mr. Gangwal, who joined the board of Southwest in July this year, had also acquired shares worth USD 108 million of the airline recently. His appointment as the board chair comes a little over a week after Southwest settled issues with Elliott Investment Management, one of the airline’s largest shareholders, that had sought sweeping changes at the carrier.

On Monday, Southwest announced the appointment of Mr. Gangwal as the independent Chair of the Board of Directors and also named new Board Committee Chairs.

“We are embarking on the next era of change at Southwest as we build upon its many successes and storied past. Our critical priority as a newly constituted board is to come together to work closely with Bob Jordan and the rest of the management team to return the carrier to superior financial performance,” Mr. Gangwal said in a statement.

Jordan is the President, Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman of the board.

Recently, Mr. Gangwal purchased shares of Southwest for $108 million.

According to seven recent filings made by Southwest to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gangwal has purchased 3.6 million shares of the airline through multiple transactions, with prices ranging between USD 29 and USD 30 apiece.

Together, shares are worth around $108 million and the transactions were done on September 30 and October 1, as per filings.

An aviation industry veteran, Gangwal started his airline career with United Airlines in 1984. He had also served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Airways Group. Among other roles, he was also the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Worldspan Technologies.

After completing his BTech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1975, Gangwal also earned an MBA degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

In April 2022, Gangwal announced donating Rs 100 crore to IIT Kanpur for setting up the School of Medical Sciences and Technology on the campus.

He is the co-founder of IndiGo, India’s largest airline but had a bitter fallout with co-founder Rahul Bhatia and the differences came out in the open in 2019. Gangwal, in February 2022, resigned from the board of directors of InterGlobe Aviation, saying he would gradually reduce his equity stake in the airline over the next five years.

In August 2024, Gangwal and his family trust sold a total of 5.83 per cent stake in the carrier for about Rs 10,500 crore.

After the share sale, Gangwal’s stake in InterGlobe Aviation — parent of IndiGo — came down to 5.31 per cent from 5.89 per cent while that of Chinkerpoo Family Trust reduced to 8.24 per cent from 13.49 per cent.

The combined shareholding of Gangwal and Chinkerpoo Family Trust has fallen to 13.55 per cent from 19.38 per cent.

A Southwest Airlines flight from Honolulu to Lihue, Hawaii, narrowly avoided disaster in April after a dramatic descent due to bad weather, according to The New York Post. The Boeing 737 Max 8, identified as Southwest Flight 2786, was forced to abandon its landing approach because of low visibility and plunged several hundred feet within seconds.

According to the news report, the rapid descent, significantly faster than the usual rate, put the plane just 400 feet from the ocean surface. Thankfully, the crew reacted swiftly and regained control, climbing the aircraft at a steep rate to avoid a potential crash.

According to a report obtained byBloomberg, the incident is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The report indicates that a “newer” first officer was in control of the aircraft during the approach due to the short flight time. When the landing became impossible due to weather, the pilot took over, but the first officer inadvertently pushed the controls forward during a critical moment, causing the descent.

The pilot was “pitching up and pitching down with the power and close to out of control-very close,” Kit Darby, a former commercial airline pilot and flight instructor, told the outlet. “It would feel like a roller coaster ride.”

The pilot quickly rectified the situation by increasing thrust, allowing the plane to climb safely.

Southwest Airlines released a statement emphasising their commitment to safety and mentioned reviewing internal data to ensure crew members receive proper training and communication protocols are followed.

A video of a woman sleeping in the overhead compartment of a plane, where luggage is stored, has gone massively viral on social media. According to New York Post, the incident took place on a Southwest Airlines flight. The video was originally posted on TikTok where it amassed more than five million views. The clip later appeared on other social media platforms too. While some of the fellow passengers were flummoxed, people who recorded the video were heard laughing hysterically over the bizarre spectacle, according o the outlet.

The woman is seen comfortably stretched out in the luggage storage space, as if in a bed.

It is not clear if the woman was a member of the crew, or a passenger but her behaviour has raised suspicions online. People also wondered how she managed to climb into the storage space.

“How did she get up there? And she’s just chillin’ out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool,” one TikTok user wondered, as reported by the Post.

“When someone’s in my seat but I don’t wanna bother,” commented another. “Southwest does allow you to choose your own seat,” a third user joked.

The airline has not responded to the video.

However, this is not the first time that such an incident has taken place. In 2023, a passenger was found sleeping in the overhead storage bin on a Ryanair flight on its way to Ibiza, Spain.

The man was filmed laughing as he got down from the overhead bin.

In 2019, a Southwest Airline flight attendant climbed up to the bin on the plane at Nashville International Airport in Tennessee.

In a statement at the time, Southwest Airlines had said: “Southwest Employees are known for demonstrating their sense of humour and unique personalities. In this instance, one of our flight attendants attempted to have a brief moment of fun with Customers during boarding. Of course, this is not our normal procedure, and Southwest Crews always maintain Safety as their top priority.”

A woman travelling from Colorado to California on a Southwest Airlines flight was allegedly kicked off by cabin crew after she reached down and stroked her puppy. The unverified video of the incident is going on social media platforms. 

The video posted by Sara Price on TikTok, now going viral on X, shows a woman sporting a sweatshirt, removing her bags from the plane’s overhead compartment and heading for the exit. The text on the video says, “Southwest Airlines kicks lady off flight for petting her puppy.” According to the Independent, the video has been watched more than 1.4 million times as of publish time. 

The caption read, “The puppy was whining a little and the flight attendant boarding everyone walked up to her and said, if your dogs don’t be quiet, you may not be able to fly,” Ms Price wrote in the caption. 

This was on our flight with @SouthwestAir yesterday. She was literally petty her new puppy through the mesh of the completely zipped carrier, and they booted her off. pic.twitter.com/HeuMR4jzJ4

— Sara (@_Sara_Price_) October 21, 2023

Upon boarding, the dog owner, who happened to be seated in the same row as Ms Price, placed the carrier on her lap and proceeded to caress her dog. According to Ms Price’s account, a flight attendant then came over to the dog owner and requested that she zip up the carrier and store it beneath the seat.

According to Southwest’s pet policy, “Pets must be secured in the pet carrier at all times while in the gate area, during boarding/deplaning, and for the entire flight. If you don’t follow this requirement, your pet may be denied transportation.”

In a summary provided by Ms Price and shared in the second video, it was observed that the woman believed it was acceptable for her to continue petting the dog until all passengers had finished boarding.

Ms Price went on to explain that the flight attendants opted to return to the gate and remove the dog owner from the plane.

In Ms Price’s video, you can hear the dog owner declining assistance from a flight attendant. She says, “I’m not going to allow you to handle any of my belongings. You are impolite. You are unkind. And I will never choose Southwest for my flights again.”

In the background of the video, other individuals can be heard consoling her. One man is heard saying, “You didn’t even have the dog out – you were just petting it.” In one of her subsequent TikTok videos, Ms Price mentioned that the man was her husband.

According to the New York Post, Southwest Airlines defended its decision to remove the passenger. 

“We’re aware of the videos and our initial reports indicate that the customer would not comply with keeping her dog’s kennel closed, which is our policy,” an airline representative told the Post. “Our Employees are trained to ensure customers are following protocol, and in this situation and after the customer repeatedly refused to comply with our crew’s instructions, the decision was made to deplane the disruptive passenger.”