A Southwest Boeing 737-800 touches down at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu. The same model was struck by a bullet on Friday in Dallas. Photo courtesy Southwest Airlines
Nov. 16 (UPI) — A Southwest Airlines jet was struck by a bullet as it was preparing to depart from Dallas Love Field Airport on Friday night. No one was one injured, authorities said. The Boeing 737-800 plane was damaged after the bullet struck “near the cockpit,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement to CNN.
The bullet was just under the flight deck on the right side of the plane as it was taxiing for takeoff from Dallas to Indianapolis just before 10 p.m., according to Southwest Airlines in a statement to CBS News about Flight 2494.
The flight safely returned to the gate, where passengers got off.
“Southwest will accommodate our customers on another flight,” the airline said. “Law enforcement authorities have been notified and the plane has been removed from service.”
It wasn’t reported where the gunfire originated or the intended target. No arrests had been announced as of early Saturday.
Dallas police are leading the investigation.
The runway used by the plane was temporarily closed Friday night as police investigated. The airport has three runways.
“There was minimal impact on airport operations,” the airport said in a statement posted on X.
Love Field is the major operating base for Southwest,
Also Friday, passengers on another Southwest Airlines flight in Denver evacuated after a passenger’s cellphone battery caught on fire and caused an airplane seat to catch fire.
On Tuesday, the FAA grounded all flights to Haiti for a month after three jets from US-based airlines were struck by bullets while flying over Port-au-Prince. JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines planes were reported to have been hit then American Airlines confirmed gunfire Tuesday.