FAA investigates Southwest flight that would have plunged nearly 400 feet into the sea

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CNN
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A federal investigation is underway after a Southwest Airlines plane crashed into the sea off the coast of a Hawaiian island.

The incident occurred on April 11 aboard Southwest Flight 2786, but only became public on Friday after Bloomberg reported that Southwest sent a memo to pilots about the incident. Bloomberg reported that the memo noted that a “newer” first officer was flying at the time and accidentally pushed the control stick forward.

Flight tracking data from ADS-B Exchange shows the plane was descending at a rate of more than 4,000 feet per minute while only 600 feet above sea level. The Boeing 737 Max 8 flew to 400 feet before rapidly climbing.

“Nothing is more important to Southwest than safety,” the airline said. “Thanks to our robust safety management system, the incident was handled appropriately as we always strive for continuous improvement.”

In a brief statement to CNN, Southwest confirmed the incident but did not address the memo or the reasons for the incident.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was immediately aware of the incident and launched an investigation.

There was no comment from the Southwest Airlines pilots association.

The flight was an island flight from Honolulu’s main airport to Lihue Airport on the neighboring island of Kauai. The internal memo said the pilots decided to abort the landing there due to bad weather, Bloomberg reports.

According to tracking data, the plane then returned to Honolulu.

In December 2022, a United Airlines flight departing from another Hawaiian airport also plunged toward the ocean in bad weather and was only 239 meters (770 feet) from disaster, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB concluded that the pilots had miscommunicated the position of the plane’s flaps. The NTSB has not yet said whether it will investigate this latest incident.