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The incident involving Southwest Airlines Flight 4069, which had
departed from Las Vegas, occurred around at 12:05 a.m.
Wednesday, the FAA said. After the automated Minimum Safe
Altitude Warning sounded, an air traffic controller alerted the
flight crew.
Southwest said it is following its Safety Management System and
is in contact with the FAA to "understand and address any
irregularities with the aircraft’s approach to the airport."
Several incidents involving Southwest flights in recent months
have raised concerns.
Asked on Monday if the incidents would prompt the agency to
boost scrutiny of Southwest, as it has with United Airlines, FAA
Administrator Mike Whitaker declined to comment. He said the
agency reviewed all airline incidents and closely monitored
carriers.
"The airline oversight model is a pretty good model that we want
to build out for other players in the system," Whitaker said.
Last week, the FAA and the U.S. National Transportation Safety
Board said they were investigating a May 25 Southwest flight of
a Boeing 737 MAX. The NTSB said the plane experienced a "Dutch
roll" at 34,000 feet while en route from Phoenix, to Oakland,
California. Such lateral asymmetric movements are named after a
Dutch ice-skating technique and can pose serious safety risks.
The FAA said last week it was also investigating a Southwest 737
MAX 8 flight in April that came within about 400 feet of the
ocean off the coast of Hawaii after bad weather conditions
prompted pilots to bypass a landing attempt at Lihue airport, on
the island of Kauai.
During the go-around, the first officer "inadvertently pushed
forward on the control column while following thrust lever
movement commanded by the autothrottle," according to a June 7
airline memo, and the plane began to descend rapidly, hitting a
maximum descent rate of about 4,400 feet per minute.
The pilots in a post-debrief said seeing the severity of the
flight "through the animations was a significant, emotional
event," the Southwest memo said, adding the airline is reviewing
data and trends related to its procedures, training, standards,
and performance.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Sandra Maler and
Leslie Adler)
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