The Boeing 737 Max 8 descended at an unusually high speed of more than 4,000 feet per minute before returning to an altitude considered safe. No one was injured.
A commercial Southwest Airlines flight came within 400 feet (about 120 meters) of crashing into the ocean off the coast of Hawaii after weather conditions forced pilots to abort a landing attempt. The Boeing 737 Max 8 descended at a speed abnormally high speed of more than 4,000 feet per minute before returning to an altitude considered safe.
According to Bloomberg, which had access to an internal report that the airline distributed to pilots last week, the US Federal Aviation Agency is investigating the episode that dates back to April 11 on a trip between Hawaii and Lihue. No one was injured on the flight, which returned safely to its departure airport in Honolulu.
According to the same news agency, the incident report comes as investigators say another Boeing 737 Max 8, also operated by Southwest, suffered significant damage after performing a “Dutch roll,” a side-to-side yaw motion. It typically occurs at altitude, where the rear of the plane rocks uncontrollably and the wings flap, during a flight from Phoenix to Oakland in May.
The US air regulator opens an investigation into Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner
From January to May, the North American regulator that controls aviation in the United States received 126 complaints, an abnormally high value considering that only 11 were registered in 2023. The Federal Aviation Agency had already announced the opening of an investigation to determine whether Boeing correctly carried out the mandatory inspections related to the fuselage “of certain Dreamliner787 aircraft.” The regulator said it will “investigate whether Boeing carried out the inspections and whether company employees may have falsified documents related to the aircraft.”
Source: Observadora
