FAA investigates report of crash

An investigation is underway after a Southwest Airlines plane crashed 400 feet above the Pacific Ocean near a Hawaiian island this spring, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed Monday.

The frightening incident occurred on the morning of April 11 on Southwest Flight 2786, according to tracking data obtained by USA TODAY.

The plane briefly descended at “an unusually high speed of more than 4,000 feet per minute” before pilots increased speed to avoid crashing into the water, according to a memo distributed by Southwest to pilots and obtained by Bloomberg, which first reported the news on Friday.

The flight crew performed a “roller coaster maneuver” to avoid impact with the sea, the outlet reported.

“We are investigating this incident,” the FAA said in a statement to USA TODAY.

The FAA did not provide further details.

Southwest Flight 2786

According to the online flight tracking site Flight Aware, the Southwest flight, an inter-island flight, departed Daniel K. Inouye International Airport at 6:45 p.m. and headed for Lihue Airport, northwest of Honolulu.

Not long after takeoff, tracking data shows, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 turned around and returned to the same airport, where it landed at 8:27 p.m.

According to an internal memo Southwest sent to pilots last week, pilots decided to abort the landing there due to “bad weather,” Bloomberg reported.

The memo suggests that a “newer” first officer was on the plane at the time and accidentally pushed the control stick forward, the outlet wrote.

No injuries were reported.

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