Watch: Airplane Descends To 'Dangerously Low' Level, Climbs Back After ATC Alert

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating a Southwest Airlines flight that dropped to just 525 feet above ground while it was approaching the Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, USA. The incident, which took place on Wednesday just after midnight, triggered an altitude warning from air traffic control after which the plane climbed to a safe altitude. The Boeing 737 plane was nine miles (approximately 14 kilometres) away from the airport when it plunged to 525 feet. Even though the plane made a safe landing, the FAA said that they would investigate the matter.

Now, an audio clip, reportedly of air traffic control giving a “low altitude alert to the pilot” and asking “You good out there?” is going viral. The clip briefly goes static, before the pilot responds calmly, even though what he says is unclear. The audio clip and the incident have prompted much outrage among the public. Many are demanding that the FAA and other related authorities should seriously investigate both aeroplane manufacturer Boeing and Southwest Airlines for such lapses, which have become frequent.

An X user commented, “The Boeing CEO makes what. $32M a year. For what? Spend that money and hire safety people.”

Another person wrote, “To those people on that plane, you can quit playing the lottery. You’ve already spent the luck.”

An X user wrote, “This is a joke at this point. Literally every week or so there’s a Boeing malfunction. How long until a complete failure kills 300 people? Terrifying.”

https://twitter.com/_SouthsideJimmy/status/1804129223822455120

Another person shared a similar sentiment and wrote, “That’s just wild. It’s only a matter of time before one of their million failures results in a horrible accident. Investigate Boeing already!”

Back in April, a Southwest flight in Hawaii caused panic when it descended to 400 feet above the Pacific Ocean instead of climbing. An X user pointed to this and wrote, “Same thing happened recently involving a flight connected to Hawaii. Plane nearly went into the water!”

Someone noted that the pilot sounded calm while speaking to the air traffic control and wrote, “Pilots are always cool as a cucumber on the radio. No matter what is happening.”

Despite the outrage, some argued that the incident was no big deal. An X user wrote, “Exaggerated a bit. The plane dropped to 525ft, which is def low. For context, this video & the reported site are less than 8 miles from the airport. I live approx 14 miles from DFW & have flights over my house extremely low sometimes. It happens.”

Following the incident, Southwest Airlines released a statement, “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.”

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