US News: In a tragic incident, a Southwest Airlines plane started flying at a low altitude over a residential area in Oklahoma City, United States. The plane was flying less than 500 feet from the houses near Yukon High School.
The incident involving Southwest Airlines Flight 4069, which took off from Las Vegas Airport, occurred on June 19 at around 12.05 pm.
This immediately triggered the altitude alarm and attracted the attention of the air traffic controller.
An air traffic controller alerted the flight crew after the automatic minimum safe altitude warning sounded.
“Southwest 4069, low altitude warning,” an air traffic controller warned over the radio. “Are you okay there?”
The incident was captured by a local resident and shared on Facebook.
She said in a post, “I thought I was having nice dreams about airplanes last night, but a 737 actually hit my house.”
The plane was later allowed to land at Will Rogers World Airport after reaching the required altitude.
The disturbing incident came shortly after another incident involving a Southwest plane that fell just 400 feet over the Pacific Ocean on its way to Hawaii in April.
FAA investigation
On Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating a Southwest Airlines flight that landed at a low altitude of 9 miles (14.5 km) from Oklahoma City Airport.
Last week, the FAA and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said they were investigating a Boeing 737 Max flight by Southwest on May 25. The plane suffered a “Dutch roll” at 34,000 feet while flying from Phoenix to Oakland, California.
The airline had said it was following its safety management system and was “in contact with the FAA to understand and resolve any irregularities in the aircraft’s approach to the airport.”
In recent months, several incidents involving Southwest Airlines flights have raised concerns.