Plane plunges to low altitude to fly only 500 feet above houses; residents fear crash
The incident involving Southwest Airlines Flight 4069, which took off from Las Vegas airport, occurred around at 12:05 am on June 19
IN a harrowing incident, a Southwest Airlines aircraft plunged to a low altitude over a residential area in Oklahoma City in the United States. The aircraft flew less than 500 feet above houses near Yukon High School.
The incident involving Southwest Airlines Flight 4069, which took off from Las Vegas airport, occurred around at 12:05 am on June 19.
It immediately triggered an altitude alarm and captured the attention of the air traffic controller.
An air traffic controller alerted the flight crew after the automated minimum safe altitude warning was sounded.
“Southwest 4069, low altitude alert,” an air traffic controller warned over the radio. “You good out there?”
The incident was captured by a local resident who shared it on Facebook.
He had said in a post: “I thought I was having cool dreams about airplanes the other night but actually had a 737 buzz my house.”
Another resident said: “It woke me up and I thought it was gonna hit my house.”
Later, the flight was cleared to land at Will Rogers World Airport after it regained the required altitude.
This unnerving event came on the heels of another incident involving a Southwest plane that dropped to just 400 feet above the Pacific Ocean en route to Hawaii in April.
FAA probe
On Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it is probing the Southwest Airlines flight that descended to a low altitude 9 miles (14.5 km) from the Oklahoma City airport.
The airline had said that it is following its safety management system and is in contact with the FAA to “understand and address any irregularities with the aircraft’s approach to the airport.”
In recent months, several incidents involving Southwest Airlines flights have raised concerns.
Last week, the FAA and the US National Transportation Safety Board had said that they were investigating a May 25 Southwest flight of a Boeing 737 MAX. The plane had experienced a “Dutch roll” at 34,000 feet while en route from Phoenix, to Oakland, California.
