Maui (Hawaii) – For many passengers, the start is likely to be the flight moment that causes them the most discomfort. And in this case, a sudden descent a minute following take-off must have caused panic and fear among the people on board!
December 18, 2022: A Boeing 777-200 of the American airline United Airlines departs Maui for San Francisco at approximately 3 p.m. local time. The weather: stormy, a flood warning has been issued for the US archipelago of Hawaii.
The first 72 seconds of the flight go according to plan – then the drama follows!
Die The machine drastically loses altitude in a very short time, rushing 426 meters down. The dark surface of the Pacific Ocean is getting closer…
236 meters from the water surface, the pilots regain control of the aircraft and climb to the cruising altitude of ten kilometers. A good four hours later they land in San Francisco. All passengers are unharmed.
As “The Air Current” reports, this incident only became known now – around two months later. It is also unclear whether the air traffic controllers in Hawaii had noted this. The violent descent was not mentioned on radio recordings available to “LiveATC”.
United Airlines then did not comment on whether the near miss was due to human error or a glitch with the aircraft. Since the machine took off for Chicago only around two and a half hours following landing in San Francisco, a technical defect seems unlikely.
“After landing in San Francisco, the pilots filled out the required safety form. United Airlines then worked closely with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the pilots’ association ALPA to complete an investigation into the case,” said Josh Freed, spokesman for the American airline, the “New York Post”.
The result of the investigation: the pilots were given additional training sessions.
According to Freed, however, the pilots had been on duty for years and had 25,000 flight hours. For classification: In the EU, 900 flight hours per year are allowed per pilot, in the USA this upper limit is not so strictly regulated.
Almost identical incident at Qatar Airways
A shockingly similar case occurred in Doha on January 10th. A Qatar Airways plane took off at 2 a.m. in the capital of Qatar towards Copenhagen. Here, too, it took less than two minutes for the plane to lose altitude massively.
It was also a Boeing, this time a 787-8 machine. The descent lasted 28 seconds, the pilots corrected it 243 meters above the ground and landed safely in Denmark six hours later.
Another similarity: In this case, too, the airline concealed the descent from the public until mid-February, details of the incident only came to light two days ago. And the Qatari airline is also very covered with information.
“Qatar Airways is aware of an incident related to flight QR161 from Doha to Copenhagen on January 10, 2023. This was immediately reported to the authorities and an internal investigation has been launched,” the statement said.
A Qatar Airways Boeing 787-8 also experienced a rapid descent shortly following takeoff