A federal investigation is underway after a Southwest Airlines flight plunged toward the ocean off the coast of a Hawaiian island.
The incident occurred April 11 aboard Southwest Flight 2786, but only came to light publicly on Friday after Bloomberg reported Southwest sent a memo to pilots about the incident. Bloomberg reported the memo indicated a “newer” first officer was flying at the time and inadvertently pushed forward on the control column.
Flight tracking data from ADS-B Exchange shows the plane dropping at a rate of more than 4,000 feet per minute while only 600 feet above sea level. The Boeing 737 Max 8 flew as low as 400 feet before rapidly climbing.
“Nothing is more important to Southwest than Safety,” the airline said. “Through our robust Safety Management System, the event was addressed appropriately as we always strive for continuous improvement.”
MCAS,
(must crash airplane system,)the system that caused those crashes is present on all max variants. The involved aircraft were max 8’s because that was the first to enter production.Every other max variant has the same system. Changes to, and knowledge of MCAS should prevent future crashes but this is an issue that affects every 737 max, despite only max 8’s crashing from it.