- Southwest Airlines Flight 4069 fell 400 to 500 feet
A Boeing 737 plane suddenly fell less than 500 feet into the ground in an Oklahoma neighborhood, terrifying residents who feared the plane would crash.
South west Airlines Flight 4069 was still nine miles away from Will Rogers World Airport shortly after midnight Wednesday, when records show it plummeted to between 400 and 500 feet while flying over a high school in Yukon City.
Doorbell camera footage showed the Boeing 737 MAX-8 hovering over houses, before flying out of frame.
A resident was startled awake by the plane’s engine and wondered if the plane was prepared for a collision.
“It woke me up and I thought it was going to hit my house,” the resident wrote on the Yukon Happenings Facebook page. according to The Oklahoman.
A Southwest commercial flight flew about 500 feet over a residential neighborhood in Oklahoma early Wednesday.
The sudden descent caused air traffic control to call the pilot and check the status of the flight.
“Southwest 4069, low altitude alert,” the air traffic controller could be heard saying on a Audio file of the broadcast.
“Are you okay out there?” she asked.
The pilot of the commercial flight from Las Vegas confirmed that there was no problem with the plane and turned around, quickly regaining altitude from about 450 feet to more than 1,000 feet as it crossed Yukon High School.
It then landed safely at the airport on a different runway and Air Traffic Control personnel confirmed there were no issues with the Boeing 737 Max-8, according to The Oklahoman.
The pilot confirmed to air traffic controllers that there was no problem with the Boeing 737
But the low approach, along with the late hour, caused concern among the city’s residents.
“I was like halfway between sleeping and being awake, and I heard that WHOOSH,” Spencer Basoco he told KFOR.
‘And at first I thought, like a storm was blowing… because it sounded like a wall of wind.
‘And I looked out the window where the sound was coming from… if you go a few blocks away there is the high school. And I just see a plane,’ she said.
“I knew it wasn’t normal.”
Southwest officials said they are working with the Federal Aviation Administration to determine what caused the sudden descent.
“Southwest is following its robust Safety Management System and is in contact with the Federal Aviation Administration to understand and address any irregularities in the aircraft’s approach to the airport,” they said in a statement.
“Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees.”
