The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a Southwest Airlines passenger flight that crashed several hundred feet into the ocean off Hawaii in April.
Weather conditions on the island of Kauai caused the pilots of Southwest Flight 2786 on April 11 to avoid a landing attempt at Lihue Airport before the rapid descent into the ocean, according to air traffic control audio from liveatc.net reviewed by CBS News. The flight eventually returned to Honolulu, where it landed safely.
Bloomberg News was the first to report the incident. Citing a memo Southwest distributed to pilots last week, it said the plane came within 400 feet of plunging into the ocean. Bloomberg News said the Boeing Co jet. 737 Max 8 briefly fell at more than 4,000 feet per minute before the flight crew raised it to avoid disaster. There were no injuries on the flight.
In a statement to CBS News, Southwest Airlines said “the event was handled appropriately.”
“Nothing is more important to Southwest than safety. Through our robust Safety Management System, the incident was appropriately addressed as we always strive for continuous improvement,” Southwest Airlines said Friday.
Thursday, federal officials said they were investigating an unusual rolling motion on a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 that may have been caused by a damaged safety power control unit.
The FAA said it was working with Boeing and the National Transportation Safety Board to investigate the incident on a May 25 flight from Phoenix to Oakland. Southwest says it is working with the FAA and Boeing.
The FAA said the plane went into a “Dutch roll,” the name given to the combination of a yawing motion when the tail slides and the plane rocks from wing tip to wing tip, a move said to mimic that of a Dutch ice skater.
Updated information provided by the NTSB on Friday said it happened when the plane was at about 34,000 feet.
The pilots are trained to recover from the state and the plane landed safely in Oakland an hour later.
Kris Van Cleave
