An incredible story comes from the USA. A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 plane nearly crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the Hawaiian island of Kauai after weather conditions forced the pilots to quickly change course. A Southwest Airlines memo to pilots, obtained by Bloomberg News, detailed Southwest Flight 2786 on April 11, which departed Honolulu International Airport and headed to Lihue Airport on Kauai. Passengers were shocked after the plane descended from nearly 16,000 feet to an altitude of 409 feet (just over 120 meters above the water in Hawaii).
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According to Southwest’s statement, the accident occurred following an aborted landing attempt due to bad weather that prevented the pilots from seeing the runway at the specified altitude. The note said the captain chose to give the “younger” first officer command of the 100-mile inter-island flight, despite the bad weather. The less experienced first officer “inadvertently” pushed the control column, which controls the plane’s pitch and roll, forward and reduced speed, causing the plane to descend rapidly. The pilot’s aggressive movement caused the warning system to report that the passenger plane was getting too close to the ground. The captain then ordered the first officer to increase thrust, prompting the plane to “climb aggressively” at 8,500 feet per minute. The interisland flight, which was expected to take about 22 minutes, departed Honolulu at 6:45 p.m., but following the crash the plane returned to Honolulu. No one was injured during the flight.
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