A Southwest Airlines plane, a Boeing 737 Max 8, nearly crashed into the Pacific Ocean near the Hawaiian island of Kauai. This happened because the pilots had to change course quickly due to bad weather.
The incident occurred on Southwest Flight 2786 on April 11, flying from Honolulu to Lihue Airport in Kauai. The plane descended from almost 16,000 feet to just 409 feet, frightening the passengers.
The pilots couldn’t see the runway due to the bad weather, so they had to abort the landing. The captain chose to let the less experienced first officer take control of the plane for the short 100-mile flight, even though the weather was bad.
The first officer accidentally pushed the control column forward and reduced the speed, causing the plane to descend rapidly. This triggered a warning that the plane was getting too close to the ground.
The captain then told the first officer to increase the plane’s thrust, causing it to climb rapidly at 8,500 feet per minute.
The flight, which should have taken about 22 minutes, had to return to Honolulu and landed safely at 8:09 p.m. Fortunately, no one was hurt during this scary incident.