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WASHINGTON.– The North American Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was investigating the circumstances in which A Southwest Airlines flight plunged more than 1,200 meters in just a few seconds before stabilizing again. when flying over the Pacific Ocean.
A memo distributed to Southwest pilots, obtained by the agency Bloombergsaid that the Boeing 737 Max 8 It sank at a speed of 1,200 meters per minute off the coast of Hawaii, approaching hundreds of meters from the ocean before ascending to safety.
News of the incident comes as investigators said a Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by Southwest suffered significant damage after performing a “Dutch turn” during a flight from Phoenix to Oakland in May.
The fall off the coast of Hawaii occurred on April 11, amid adverse weather conditions. The plane was flying from Honolulu to Lihue when it experienced the rapid descent, the British newspaper reported The Guardian. The report said the decline led to the plane about 100 meters above the oceanaccording to data from a flight tracking website.
Nobody was hurt. “Nothing is more important to Southwest than safety”the airline said in a statement provided to the media. “Through our robust Safety Management System, the event was addressed appropriately as we always strive for continuous improvement.”
The FAA told cnn who learned of the incident immediately and opened an investigation. The plane was eventually diverted to Honolulu.
In another incident, A Boeing 737 Max suffered damage to parts of the airframe after it entered a “Dutch turn” during a Southwest Airlines (SWA) flight in Maysaid Bloomberg.
The incident occurred while the plane was sailing at 10,000 meters from Arizona to California. The plane landed safely, but Southwest did not notify the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) about the roll or damage to the plane until June 7.
“Following the event, SWA performed maintenance on the aircraft and discovered damage to structural components.”the NTSB said.
A Dutch roll occurs when the tail of the plane slides from side to side and the plane moves in a way that causes the wings to move up and down.
An FAA report said “substantial” damage was discovered to a unit that controls backup power to the plane’s rudder. It is unclear what triggered the incident, which was the last to involve a Boeing 737 Max.
In January, the FAA ordered that 200 Boeing 737 Max 9s stopped flying after a piece of fuselage flew off the plane in mid-flight. The planes were allowed to return to the air after undergoing an extensive inspection and maintenance process.
Last year, Southwest agreed to pay a record $140 million civil penalty after a holiday crisis in December 2022 left 2 million passengers stranded at airports across the United States. The airline canceled 8,000 flights in a four-day period following a winter storm.
The US Department of Transportation found that Southwest violated consumer protection laws by failing to provide adequate customer service assistance “through its call center to hundreds of thousands of customers,” as well as by failing to provide immediate notifications about the status of flights to more than a million passengers and quick refunds to thousands.
AP and Reuters Agencies
THE NATION
