new york
CNN
—
A federal investigation is underway after a Southwest Airlines plane crashed into the ocean off the coast of Hawaii.
The accident happened on Southwest Airlines Flight 2786 on April 11, but only became public on Friday after Bloomberg reported that Southwest had sent a memo about the incident to its pilots, which said the “rookie” co-pilot at the controls at the time accidentally pushed the control stick forward, Bloomberg reported.
Flight tracking data from ADS-B Exchange showed the plane was descending at more than 4,000 feet per minute at 600 feet above sea level. The Boeing 737 Max 8 flew as low as 400 feet before climbing rapidly.
“Nothing is more important to Southwest Airlines than safety,” the company said. “We are always committed to continuous improvement, and we have responded appropriately to this incident through our robust safety management system.”
Southwest Airlines acknowledged the incident in a brief statement to CNN, but did not comment on what was in the memo or why it happened.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it immediately learned of the incident and launched an investigation.
The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association declined to comment.
The flight was an interisland flight from Honolulu’s main airport to Lihue airport on the neighboring island of Kauai, and an internal memo said the pilot decided to abort the landing due to bad weather, according to Bloomberg.
Tracking data showed the plane then returned to Honolulu.
Also in December 2022, a United Airlines plane taking off from another Hawaii airport nosedived toward the ocean during bad weather and nearly crashed 748 feet into the ocean, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB concluded that the pilot miscommunicated the settings of the plane’s flaps. The NTSB has not yet said whether it will investigate this latest incident.
