Dallas Realtor & Celina Firefighter Helped Pull Albuquerque Passenger on Fateful Southwest Flight

When that Southwest flight 1380 lost an engine Tuesday morning, shortly after take-off from New York City, a Dallas Realtor was one of the people who jumped in and tried to save the life of Jennifer Riordan, the flight’s only victim.

Ms. Riordan is the 43-year old Albuquerque woman, wife and mother who was in a window seat flying from LaGuardia to Dallas Love Field. When the engine on the flight blew off, debris flew like shrapnel onto the plane, breaking a passenger window. The suction of the window break pulled her partially out of the plane. Jennifer was later pronounced dead from blunt force injuries.

There were many heroes on that flight, from the pilot who calmly sought an emergency landing and medical help for her passengers, to passengers trained as nurses and firefighters, and a Dallas Realtor named Tim McGinty, who was sitting across the aisle from Ms. Riordan. Tim is a farm and ranch agent who holds his license with John Waggoner Willingham, in a downtown Dallas office at 325 North St. Paul Street.

Tim McGinty was sitting across the aisle from the woman, later identified as 43-year-old Jennifer Riordan. The farm and ranch real estate agent from Texas said he initially felt helpless watching Riordan “flying out the window” as the vacuum pulled the “petite lady.” And then he thought: “Maybe I could help.” 

“I wasn’t strong enough. A fireman, from Celina, Texas, jumped in there and helped, and between the two of us we were able to get her back in,” McGinty told reporters Tuesday after Flight 1380 made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport.

Andrew Needum is the Celina firefighter who helped McGinty pull Ms. Riordan back into the plane as the plane was rapidly descending. He was returning from a vacation in New York City with his family, including parents and children. 

Heroes, all of them.