Boeing Jet Buzzes Residential Neighborhood in Mid-Air Incident
It's the latest in countless incidents for Boeing this year.
Yet another Boeing aircraft has suffered yet another mid-air upset, as a jet operated by Southwest was caught on video making a terrifying, unexpected dive towards a residential neighborhood in Oklahoma City, OK.
Just after midnight on Wednesday, a Boeing 737-800 en route to Oklahoma City from Las Vegas was cleared to land at Will Rogers World Airport, according to The Oklahoman. The plane proceeded to lose altitude at an astonishing rate, passing a mere 525 feet above Yukon High School, triggering low-altitude alerts at the airport and sending terrified locals outside to investigate the chaos.
"Southwest 4069, low altitude alert. You good out there?" the air traffic controller inquired, per LiveATC’s archive of transmissions.
Bloomberg reported (via The New York Post) that the aircraft lost altitude at “an abnormally high rate of more than 4,000 feet per minute” before the pilots were able to bring the plane back up. A video of the incident shows the plane's lights illuminating the sky as it passes over several homes.
The pilots proceeded to circle the airport, eventually landing safely on a different runway. On Thursday, Southwest announced that they were working with the FAA to investigate the cause of the incident.
"Southwest is following its robust Safety Management System and is in contact with the Federal Aviation Administration to understand and address any irregularities with the aircraft’s approach to the airport,” the airline’s statement read. “Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees.”
The event lit up activity on the private Yukon Happenings Facebook group, where residents shared their experiences with the low-flying Boeing.
“Thought I was having cool dreams about airplanes other night but actually had a 737 buzz my house,” one neighbor joked.
“It woke me up and I thought it was gonna hit my house,” another shared.
This incident is just the latest piece of bad publicity for Boeing in 2024. The beleaguered airline kicked off the year with the already infamous Alaska Airlines door blowout, which was followed by a number of airlines and corporations accusing Boeing of lackadaisical aircraft construction.