The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a Southwest Airlines flight from earlier this month that had to divert after flying at low altitudes.
The investigation, which the FAA confirmed Monday, comes on the heels of a second Southwest low-altitude flight in as many months.
On July 14, Southwest flight 425 was approaching Tampa International Airport but made too much of a descent, getting as low as 150 feet above sea level about 4.8 miles from the runway, according to flight tracking service Flightradar24.
By comparison, the three flights before Southwest flight 425 went over the same point at 1,225 feet.
Air traffic controllers let the pilots know the plane on a flight from Columbus, Ohio, was too low.
As the plane descended, light rain and gusts of up to 20 mph buffeted the Tampa area according to the Tampa Bay Times, and this weather would have made it dangerous to ascend sufficiently to land at the Tampa airport.
However, flying low to the ground or water is also risky because of the dangers of wind around the plane.
If there had been a wind shear — a sudden and rapid change in the speed and direction of the wind — it could have “swatted the airplane like a fly into Tampa Bay,” veteran commercial pilot and certified flight instructor Robert Katz told the Tampa Bay Times.
So after flight 425 circled around the Tampa airport, it diverted to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport 200 miles away.
Southwest told multiple outlets that “Southwest flight 425 safely diverted to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on July 14 after the crew discontinued their planned approach into Tampa International Airport. The aircraft returned to Tampa after a short time on the ground in Fort Lauderdale.”
On June 19, another Southwest flight from Las Vegas to Oklahoma City hit low altitude above residential neighborhoods in Yukon, Oklahoma, about nine miles away from Will Rogers World Airport.
The FAA is also investigating that incident.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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