DALLAS — For the first time, WFAA is hearing from passengers on the Southwest Airlines flight that was struck with a bullet Friday night at Love Field.
"That could have come at any point into the plane," James Lee told WFAA over Zoom.
James and his wife Shannon Lee were on the flight with their 2 sons. Police say the bullet went through the cockpit as it prepared to depart from Love Field to Indianapolis. The Lees are based in North Texas and said they were headed to Indianapolis to visit friends. Police sources tell WFAA the incident is now believed to have been the result of random gunfire.
"Really unsettling," Shannon said.
The Lees told WFAA they were never told a bullet hit the plane, and instead were under the impression there had been a mechanical issue. They said they only learned of what had happened hours later when they arrived in Indianapolis on another plane. They told WFAA that had they known what happened, they never would have stayed in the airport for two hours with their children or gone back on the tarmac for the replacement flight.
"When a bullet hole is found in a plane, and it hasn’t been determined exactly where that bullet came from, why would the airport be left remaining open? " James said. "Why would they be shutting people to new planes to continue to fly?"
"They didn’t consider we’d want to make decisions about our own safety," Shannon added.
The Lees feel strongly they should have been notified the moment airline and airport staff believed a bullet hit their plane.
"We are disappointed are disappointed that Southwest chose that for us," Shannon said.
Southwest sent the following statement to WFAA:
"Southwest Airlines has been in contact with the Customers who were aboard Flight 2494 on Friday night. In addition to offering them vouchers for future travel, we apologized for the inconvenience and stressed that the Safety of our Customers and Crew were our top priority. The replacement flight continued to Indianapolis only after the Dallas Police had ascertained that there was no ongoing threat to public safety and the airport authority had reopened the runway for normal operations."