(The Hill) — A bullet struck near the cockpit of a Southwest Airlines flight with passengers that was scheduled to depart from Dallas Love Field Airport on Friday, the airline said in a statement.
Southwest Airlines Flight 2494 got hit on the “right side of the aircraft just under the flight deck while the Crew was preparing for departure for Indianapolis,” according to a Southwest spokesperson.
Dallas Police Department confirmed and responded to the incident. No injuries were reported. The gunfire occurred around 8:30 p.m. local time, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement. The passengers were deplaned and were transferred to another flight, the airline spokesperson said.
Runway 13R/31L was briefly shut down but has since reopened, Dallas Love Field airport said on X, adding the gunfire had “minimal” impact on the airport’s operations.
The plane, a Boeing 737-800, was removed from service. The investigation is ongoing and is led by the Dallas Police Department. It is unclear, for now, what was the source of the gunfire and how many passengers were aboard when the incident took place.
The Texas incident comes just days after JetBlue Airways, Spirit Airlines and American Airlines halted flights to Haiti after two aircraft were hit by bullets amid the gang violence escalating in the country.
A JetBlue flight from Port-au-Prince was hit by a bullet. It safely landed in New York City on Monday. A Spirit Airlines flight going from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. was also hit on Monday. The plane diverted and landed in Santiago, Dominican Republic with one flight attendant having “minor injuries.”
