The US is investigating the April incident in which the jet dropped more than 4,000 feet per minute before the crew pulled up to avoid disaster.
In April, weather led the pilots of a Southwest Airlines Co. passenger flight to abandon a landing attempt, putting the aircraft 400 feet from the coast of Hawaii and straight into the ocean. According to a document that Southwest sent out to pilots last week, which Bloomberg News was able to view, the Boeing Co. 737 Max 8 aircraft plummeted briefly at an unusually high rate of more than 4,000 feet per minute before the flight crew pulled up to prevent disaster. The aircraft returned to Honolulu’s departure airport without incident, leaving no injuries behind. Following questions from Bloomberg, the US Federal Aviation Administration declared that it was looking into the event.