Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed near Hawaii 400 feet above sea level

In April, a Southwest Airlines Co. passenger plane narrowly missed crashing into the sea off the coast of Hawaii after the pilots had to abort a landing attempt due to weather conditions.

The Boeing 737 Max 8 jet briefly fell at an unusually high speed of more than 4,000 feet per minute before the flight crew pulled back up to avoid a disaster, according to a memo Southwest distributed to pilots last week and seen by Bloomberg News. No one on the flight was injured, and the flight returned safely to its departure airport in Honolulu.

When asked by Bloomberg, the US aviation authority FAA said it was investigating the incident.

The previously unreported incident is one of several safety incidents that have drawn public attention as airlines have resumed flights since the pandemic. Southwest’s management also faces growing pressure from activist firm Elliott Investment Management and other investors unhappy with the company’s weak financial position and insular corporate culture.

“Nothing is more important to Southwest than safety,” the airline said in an emailed statement about the Hawaii flight. “Our robust safety management system ensured the incident was handled appropriately as we always strive for continuous improvement.”

Southwest Flight 2786 fell from an altitude of about 1,000 feet (300 meters) to 400 feet (120 meters) above sea level in a matter of seconds, according to data from the flight tracking website ADS-B Exchange. The plane, which was near Lihue Airport on the island of Kauai, then began a rapid climb.

The pilot “was floating up and down with the power and was close to losing control – almost,” Kit Darby, a former commercial airline pilot and flight instructor, said in an interview after reviewing details of the flight. “It felt like a roller coaster ride.”

According to Southwest’s analysis, the incident occurred after an aborted landing attempt due to adverse weather conditions because the pilots could no longer see the runway above a certain altitude.

Despite the weather forecast, the captain decided to send the “newer” first officer on the short flight to Lihue, the memo says.

The less experienced first officer “inadvertently” pushed the control stick forward while following the movement of the thrust lever caused by the aircraft’s automatic throttle.

The pilot then reduced speed, causing the plane to descend. Shortly thereafter, a warning system sounded an alarm that the plane was getting too close to the surface, and the captain ordered the first officer to increase thrust. The plane then “aggressively climbed” to 8,500 feet per minute, the memo said.

Airplanes preparing to land typically descend at 1,500 to 2,000 feet per minute at the beginning of the approach, Darby said, and slow to 800 feet about five miles from the airport.

The National Transportation Safety Board was not aware of the incident at Southwest, a spokesman said. The Southwest Airlines pilots’ association declined to comment.

Southwest declined to disclose the flight number or date of the incident, citing an FAA-monitored safety program that allows pilots and other employees to report concerns anonymously.

03:35

Dozens injured in Boeing plane crash en route from Australia to New Zealand

Dozens injured in Boeing plane crash en route from Australia to New Zealand

The airline concluded in its investigation into the recent accident that proper supervision by pilots and better communication between crew members were crucial. Among other things, it promised to review industry and internal data on its procedures and training protocols.

The Southwest incident is reminiscent of an event in December 2022, when a United Airlines Holdings Inc. flight suddenly crashed shortly after takeoff from another airport in Hawaii, coming within about 750 feet of the ocean. That incident was investigated by both the FAA and the NTSB, who concluded that the accident was due to miscommunication between the plane’s pilots.

The pilots involved in this flight received additional training as a result of the incident.

Southwest was little changed at the close of trading in New York on Friday.