Passengers remember the horror of Southwest Airlines flight 1380 on GMA
PHILAELPHIA (WPVI) -- Amid all of the uncertainty, fear, confusion and terror, there was Peggy Phillips. The retired registered school nurse answered the call when passengers on Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 asked if anyone knew CPR.
"It was terrifying," Phillips told Robin Roberts on Good Morning America Wednesday morning. "There was an incredibly loud noise, and the plane was shaking like I've never experienced before."
One of the plane's engines had exploded in midair over Berks County. The pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in Berks County.
Passengers were pulling Jennifer Riordan back into the plane, the woman who was nearly sucked out of a window during the engine failure. Phillips had already put on her oxygen mask - instinct did the rest. "The minute they said 'we need someone who knows CPR' I got up, went back, took off my oxygen mask, went back, we began CPR immediately."
And they continued CPR for 20 minutes, all the way through the emergency landing. Phillips only wishes she and the others could have done more - Riordan would not survive.
"I don't consider myself a hero by any stretch, but there were heroes on that plane."
Another passenger, Marty Martinez, managed to put his oxygen mask on - and use his laptop to connect with the airplane's wi-fi. Martinez decided to begin a Facebook live, thinking it was the best way to connect with his loved ones, possibly for the very last time.
"Think about this, you know, I don't know how many minutes I had left," said Martinez, also on Good Morning America. "I didn't know whether it would work, frantically trying to find my credit card and trying to punch in my credit card number so I could speak to the outside world."
Thoughts raced through Martinez' head. Who to contact? Who first? Facebook Live was one of the few options where he didn't have to make some of those choices.
"To be put in that position where I had to figure out what loved ones I was going to reach out to. And in what order. And what do I tell them?"
Martinez also looked out the window, unsure of even where he was and what would happen next.
"I felt like I could touch the tops of the skyscrapers in Philly, what I now know to be Philly. And I kept thinking 'where could we possibly be landing?'"
Time and time again, those who lived through the horrific end to the flight lauded those that came together and worked to help others.
"I feel terribly, terribly sorry for the family, my heart goes out to them," said Phillips, the nurse, "but I am so proud of my fellow passengers and the flight crew and the pilot."
Without the steely resolve of those who took action, Flight 1380 could have been far more tragic.
