The Federal Aviation Administration ordered ultrasonic inspections of jet engines after an explosion on a Southwest Airlines flight earlier this week killed a passenger.
"In other parts of the world, these regulations have already been in place," said Emily McNutt, a news writer at The Points Guy. "In Europe, just last month European regulators issued these same regulations that require airlines to inspect those CFM 56-7B engines, which are most commonly found on Boeing 737 aircraft."
It was a Southwest Boeing 737 jet that suffered a catastrophic failure of one of its engines on Tuesday en route from New York to Dallas. One passenger, identified as [Jennifer Riordan](https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/18/us/philadelphia-southwest-flight-jennifer-riordan/index.html), a 43-year-old Wells Fargo executive from New Mexico, was killed when she was sucked against a broken window as the cabin depressurized.
This is not the first call for inspections of this type of engine aboard Boeing 737 aircraft. An accident aboard a different Southwest jet in 2016 moved the F.A.A. to [consider inspections](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/business/engine-on-southwest-jet-not-the-only-one-to-develop-cracks.html). And the engine's manufacturer CFM proposed checks in recent years, and is now [pressing for them](https://www.wsj.com/articles/cfm-plans-new-jet-engine-directive-1524244730).
McNutt said it wasn't clear whether the airline or the engine manufacturer was responsible, and if the F.A.A. should have acted sooner in regards to engine inspections. The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating.
"It could be on the airline in that they weren't inspecting the engines. But it could be on the F.A.A. because back in 2016, a similar incident did happen, again involving Southwest," said McNutt on Friday in an interview with Cheddar. "Because the F.A.A. didn't immediately require that airlines didn't undergo these inspections, the F.A.A. kind of is partially is responsible in a sense. Whether or not this holds up legally is yet to be determined."
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/fallout-from-southwest-airlines-emergency-landing).
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
