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Southwest Airlines plane plunged within 400 feet of ocean near Hawaii after weather conditions forced pilots to bypass a landing attempt
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- Title
- Bloomberg
- Word count
- 77 words
From about 1,000 feet.
Doesn't really sound like it really plunged. Seems the captain may have made a bad call initially (although not knowing the conditions or procedures, I can't speculate), but was in control the whole time.
archive link
The Guardian also has a (non-paywalled) summary.
Within 400 feet?! Yikes, that's VERY close (the height of a 40 storey building) and if it was clear enough to see the ocean it would've been terrifying to be on that roller coaster.
Of course Im reading this after just convincing myself to go back to Hawaii. I HATE flying now and there have been so many reports of erratic flights, unusually bad turbulence causing injuries or half crazy passengers losing their minds on board that it really makes me want to take a boat. I dont know if its because Im hyperaware of every flight story or that there really has been an increase in incidences, but Boeing's troubles certainly have not helped my confidence.
If you can stomach it, Wikipedia has list of every fatal accident involving commercial aircraft in the US. But I think the list is rather reassuring, as it confirms that fatal incidents are relatively rare.
As you go back farther in time, you'll find that the number of incidents becomes more frequent. So on the whole things are getting better, despite media coverage (not to excuse Boeing for their faults).
In contrast, over 42,000 died from motor vehicle crashes in 2022, averaging out to about 117 people per day.
I'm well aware. I used to work for an airline and flew often for many years. Which is when I grew to hate it. Partly for the 'security theatre' aspect that I have grown to deeply despise. And the hurry up and wait waste of time that going through security several hours before takeoff has become.
But those oft quoted 'deaths per year' stats are not reassuring because they omit the 'heart stopping, panic inducing moments' per year ratio. THAT'S what Im concerned about, not so much dying.
I can drive for days (Im just finishing a 4400 km trip today) and not have a single scary moment. I eat my snacks and drink my coffee and listen to 100 podcasts and the miles melt away. But I have had several times on flights when my blood pressure has skyrocketed because of strange events that could be serious because, as a passenger, you dont know whats going to happen.
Eg. We were on a flight that was hit by lightning. It was at night and most people were asleep but it lit up the front of the plane like a camera flash. We wondered if it was going to affect the plane but who knows?
Another flight we hit turbulence that was short but pretty dramatic - at one point the plane dropped like a rock. It was probably only 30 ft but when you feel your body coming off the seat you dont know if its 30 ft or 30000 ft. Lots of people let out a scream.
Ive also been on a flight where an overserved passenger ending up talking loudly through a 5 hr red eye. Everyone was furious at him for keeping us awake. When we landed and everyone stood up, another passenger walked up to him swearing and punched him hard in the mouth. That was the first time he shut up in 5 hours but everyone applauded the punch. Then the cops boarded and arrested him.
Another time the pilot had to do a go round but our approach was very low and at a different approach angle. We were actually below the level of the office building top floors when he made a hard left bank and we had barely levelled out when we were down on the runway. Its NOT reassuring to look out your window and be staring at the ground thats only 300 ft below you when youre in the middle of a city and cant see a runway. Everyone was clutching their armrests wondering what the hell was going on and wondering if we were crashing.
Ive watched an engine inspection cover that was loose and flapping as we flew. It wasn't a big cover, but still, you watch it and wonder what happens to the engine if it rips off?
I've been on a plane that blew a tire on landing. Its not uncommon but the bang and seeing a wheel fly apart isn't reassuring on landing. Its far less fun on takeoff.
Thats the kind of crappy experiences Im talking about. I dont NEED more heart stopping, panic inducing moments in my life. Sure Ill arrive alive because flying is "safer than driving" but no one mentions that the STRESS of flying will take years off your life. I MUCH prefer long, boring drives with zero drama. I'd rather hit a moose than fly again.
The airport they were landing at is 80 ft above sea level and there's nothing between the runways and the ocean.
I've gotten very distrustful of 'general news' reporting of anything aviation related.
I can't see the whole articlebut it sounds like a textbook go-around because the weather made the landing unstable, and then they went to a different airport because of the weather.You should be distrustful of any news reporting to be honest.
There's an old adage called Knoll’s law of media accuracy, which states: “everything you read in the newspapers is absolutely true, except for the rare story of which you happen to have firsthand knowledge”.
People with expertise in a given field will often notice that general news about that field is wildly inaccurate every time it's reported on. It would be an extraordinary coincidence if the only regularly inaccurate stories were those in your field of expertise though.
I try to use that as a lens to view most news through.
Definitely not a textbook go-around. A textbook go-around at no point has the airplane descending, and they also don't have the airplane climbing at 8,500 ft/min. From everything I've seen, the approach was stable, but they went missed when they didn't have the runway in sight at the bottom. At that point everything went south as the first officer who was flying fell way behind the airplane and took it on a bit of a roller coaster ride trying to follow the flight director and not understanding what the auto throttles were doing.
Ignorabimus provided an archive link in their comment.
It's this.
Flying is orders of magnitude more safe than driving a car. Every aviation incident makes national news because they are so rare and unusual. Fatal car crashes on the other hand are routine and hardly newsworthy.
Recently we opted to drive between two relatively close cities in the USA rather than fly (there were various reasons it made sense for that particular trip). On the way back, we drove through a rainstorm that obliterated visibility, and there was no shoulder to pull over on. Stopping would've been dangerous cos no one could see us from behind, driving was dangerous cos we couldn't see in front of us, entire thing was terrifying. We made it out safely but it could've gone either way.
Anyway experiencing that made the fact that flying is safer have very real meaning for me.
I'm also an anxious flyer, do not like it. But do remember hundreds of thousands of flights per day happen and you don't hear of them falling out of the sky, because they don't.
For me, I think being anxious and hating flying comes down to lack of control. I think I would have minimal issues if I were a pilot and encountered turbulence and other potential issues, because at least I'm at the helm.
None of this completely rids me of my anxiety, but it definitely helps. I just flew back home on Sunday and it was one of the smoothest flights I've ever had, yet I still got anxious at times, but just reminded myself that this was the sixth flight I'd been on this month, clocking in almost 30 hours of flight time this month alone and it'll all be fine.
If it helps, the U.S. government stations rescue ships every few miles along the path from the continental U.S. to Hawaii. (This isn't true, but it's how my grandfather convinced my great-uncle to visit Hawaii 50 years ago.)
More seriously, look up how many flights don't make it to the news because the trip is completely boring and uneventful. FlightAware tracked 171,743 flights arriving at their destination in the last 24 hours. Hawaii reports over 30,000 people arriving every day so far this month.
You probably drive or ride in a car regularly, but that is significantly more dangerous than commercial air travel.
The news article is a bit vague, but it sounds like it lost altitude in part because the first officer reduced engine power when they shouldn't have. That's a bad thing so close to the ground, but they recovered immediately.
When anything isn't right during a landing, to do a "go around" you go full throttle and back up again, which is what they did. Go arounds can be kind of dramatic, but it's correct procedure and they happen frequently (usually in bad weather, though not in this case).
I believe this one was indeed caused by bad weather - they didn't have the runway in sight at the bottom of the approach.
Why insert Boeing 737 Max into the title when it’s not in the original? It was due to weather conditions and pilot error, seems like clickbait which I’ve noticed a ton of since the recent Boeing scandal(s).
Amended.
My eyes just saw the 737 max - Boeing is really having a bad time, I think most of it well earned.