An investigation is underway after a Southwest Airlines flight plunged 400 feet above the Pacific Ocean near a Hawaiian island this spring, the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed Monday.
The terrifying incident occurred the morning of April 11 on Southwest Flight 2786, according to tracking data obtained by USA TODAY shows.
The plane briefly descended at “an abnormally high speed of more than 4,000 feet per minute” before the pilots stopped to prevent it from crashing into the water, according to a memo Southwest distributed to pilots obtained by Bloomberg, which broke the news Friday before the first reported.
The flight crew performed a “roller coaster maneuver,” the outlet reported, to avoid ending up in the ocean.
“We are investigating this incident,” the FAA told TODAY in a statement to USA.
The FAA has not released any further details.
Southwest flight 2786
According to the online site Flight Aware, which tracks flight routes, the Southwest flight, an inter-island hop, took off from Daniel K. Inouye International Airport at 9:35 a.m. en route to Lihue Airport, just northwest of Honolulu.
Not long after takeoff, the tracking data shows, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 turned around and returned to the same airport, landing at 10:35 a.m.
According to the internal memo Southwest sent to pilots last week, the pilots decided to abort the landing there due to “bad weather,” Bloomberg reported.
The memo indicated that a “newer” first officer was flying at the time and accidentally pushed forward on the control column, the outlet wrote.
No injuries have been reported.
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Southwest: ‘The event was tackled’
Southwest acknowledged the incident to USA TODAY but would not provide additional details on the matter, citing its privacy policy as “an internal memo.”
“Nothing is more important to Southwest than safety,” the airline said in a statement early Monday. “Our robust safety management system ensured the event was handled appropriately as we always strive for continuous improvement.”
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her at X @nataliealund.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Southwest Flight 2786 in Hawaii: FAA investigating after dive report
