The last Southwest 737 Max 8 airliner, ordered grounded by U.S. President Donald Trump, sits at Gate 40 after arriving from Los Angeles at St. Louis-Lambert International Airport in St. Louis on March 13, 2019. The FAA is investigation a dangerously low approach of Southwest flight 4069 into Oklahoma City Thursday. File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo
June 20 (UPI) -- The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating an incident in which a Southwest Airlines jet descended dangerously low on its approach into Oklahoma City shortly after midnight on Thursday. An air traffic controller at the Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City radioed to the plane's pilots telling them they were at an extremely unsafe altitude when an automated warning from the Minimum Safe Altitude Warning system sounded 9 miles away from the airport.
The plane passed over Yukon High School at roughly 625 feet, and at one point had descended to roughly 525 feet, according to FlightRadar24, which tracks arrivals, departures and in-flight operations of planes in the air.
"Southwest 4069, low altitude alert. You good out there?" the air traffic controller said, according to audio of the call obtained by The Oklahoman. Southwest Airlines Flight 4069 had departed from Las Vegas.
"It woke me up and I thought it was gonna hit my house," one person told The Oklahoman.
The commercial jet eventually landed safely after it regained altitude and circled around the airport.
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"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. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees," a Southwest spokesperson said.
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- Topics
- Travel
- Federal Aviation Administration
- The Oklahoman
- Will Rogers
