by A United Airlines flight took a terrifying dive, plummeting just 800 feet above the Pacific Ocean shortly after taking off from Maui late last year, data from the flight shows.
The crash developed just 71 seconds after United Airlines Flight UA 1722 took off from Maui’s Kahului Airport bound for San Francisco on December 18, according to data from flight radar, a flight tracking website. The dive was first reported by air current.
Flight data shows that the plane took off at 2:49 p.m. local time and rose to an altitude of 2,200 feet when it suddenly dove and fell 775 feet above the Pacific Ocean.
The fall caused the plane to plunge at a vertical speed of almost 8,600 feet per minute, according to the data.
The flight recovered and regained an altitude of 2,350 feet soon after, the dive and recovery taking less than a minute, according to the data.
The plane had taken off as Hawaii was experiencing stormy weather with showers and thunderstorms throughout the region, according to the National Weather Service office in Honolulu. On December 18, Maui was under flash flood warnings, high swell and gale warnings
The flight continued its journey, arriving in San Francisco at 9:03 p.m. local time.
United Airlines said that after landing at SFO, the pilots submitted “the appropriate safety briefing.”
United coordinated with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Air Line Pilots Association “on an investigation that ultimately resulted in pilots receiving additional training,” he said.
“Safety remains our top priority,” the airline said in a statement.
The airline said the two pilots involved, who have approximately 25,000 hours of flight experience between them, fully cooperated with the investigation and their training program is continuing. The airline declined to provide any further information about the incident.
The FAA said the flight crew reported the incident to the FAA as part of a voluntary safety reporting program and that the agency reviewed the incident and took “appropriate action.”
