The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a Southwest Airlines skirmish that flew several hundred feet over Yukon, Oklahoma.
Just after 12 a.m. Wednesday, Southwest Flight 4069 — a Boeing 737 from Las Vegas — was approximately nine miles from Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City when it plunged about 525 feet above the Yukon. According to Flight data from Flightradar24.com.
The descent triggered a low altitude warning from an air traffic controller. A Register As reported by LiveATC.net, an air traffic controller can be heard saying: “Southwest 4069, low altitude warning. Are you all right there?”
“Yes, we’re circling 4069,” replied the pilot. An air traffic controller can be heard instructing the pilot to climb to 3,000 feet. The plane landed safely at the airport with no injuries reported.
Still, according to KFOR, the plane reportedly hit its lowest altitude, leaving many residents stunned, including Spencer Basoko, who lives near Yukon High School.
speaks KFOR, Basoco said: “I was half awake between sleep and I hear this whoosh … I thought at first, like a storm … because it sounded like a wall of wind. I looked out the window. I see a plane.
Posting on the Yukon Happenings Facebook group, one resident wrote: “It woke me up and I thought it was going to hit my house,” The Oklahoman reports.
Following the incident, the F.A.A said In a statement: “After an automated alert sounded, air traffic controllers alerted the crew of Southwest Airlines Flight 4069 that the plane had descended at low altitude about nine miles from Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City.”
It has also been reported that the incident is being investigated.
In a statement published by the Associated Press, Southwest Airlines said: “Southwest follows its robust safety management system and is in contact with the Federal Aviation Administration to understand and address any irregularities in aircraft access to the airport.
“Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees,” the airline added.
Southwest’s latest incident follows the FAA’s inspection of another of its planes after a Boeing 737 crashed at 4,000 feet per minute off the coast of Hawaii in April. According to a memo distributed to the plane’s pilots and reviewed According to Bloomberg, the plane was en route from Lihue to Honolulu when it plunged about 400 feet above the Pacific Ocean.
The airline suffered another incident in May when a Boeing 737 aircraft did a “Dutch roll” during a flight, damaging parts of its structure. A Dutch roll occurs when the tail of an aircraft slides sideways and its wings roll up and down.
The plane was en route from Phoenix, Arizona to Oakland, California and was flying at an altitude of about 34,000 feet when the incident occurred. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, Southwest “underwent maintenance on the aircraft and sustained damage to structural components”.
