by Andrew Holleran; Edited by News Gate Team
A United Airlines flight took a terrifying dive, plummeting to merely 800 feet above the Pacific Ocean shortly after taking off from Maui late last year, flight data shows.
According to information from the flight tracking website Flight Radar, the plunge occurred just 71 seconds after United Airlines Flight UA 1722 took off from Kahului Airport in Maui headed for San Francisco on December 18. The Air Current was the first to report the dive.
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According to the flight data, the aircraft took off at 2:49 p.m. local time and climbed to a height of 2,200 feet before rapidly diving and dropping to a height of 775 feet over the Pacific Ocean.
The data show that during the dive, the plane descended at a vertical rate of over 8,600 feet per minute.
According to the data, the dive and recovery took less than a minute before the airplane recovered and regained an altitude of 2,350 feet.
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According to the National Weather Service office in Honolulu, the plane had taken off while Hawaii was experiencing inclement weather with showers and thunderstorms rolling throughout the region. On December 18, Maui was subject to gale, high surf, and flash flood warnings.
At 9:03 p.m. local time, the airplane completed its journey and touched down in San Francisco.
After touching down at SFO, according to United Airlines, the pilots “submitted the necessary safety report.”
The Federal Aviation Administration, the Air Line Pilots Association, and United worked together “on an investigation that ultimately resulted in the pilots obtaining extra training,” according to the statement.
Safety is still the airline’s first priority, it was stated in a statement.
The two engaged pilots, who have a combined flying time of almost 25,000 hours, according to the airline
The airline claimed that the two involved pilots, who together have almost 25,000 hours of flight experience, fully cooperated with the investigation and that their training program is still in progress. The airline declined to offer more details on the incident.
According to the FAA, the flight crew reported the occurrence to the organization as part of a voluntary safety reporting program, and after reviewing the report, “necessary action” was taken.
The original version of this item appeared on NBCNews.com.
by Andrew Holleran; Edited by News Gate Team
