Washington DC, United States

United States federal investigators have said that a pilot error led to a United Airlines flight plunging towards the ocean, coming within 748 feet of crashing into the Pacific Ocean in 2022.

In a recently published final report, the National Transportation Safety Board has stated that the cause of the deep dive, which was taken by United Airlines flight 1722, was “the flight crew’s failure to manage the aeroplane’s vertical flightpath” after an apparent “miscommunication” between both the pilots over the position of the wing flaps of the plane.

The incident happened a minute after the Boeing 777 took off from Hawaii’s Kahului Airport on December 18, 2022, amid heavy rain and turbulence, said the NTSB.

The flight, which had 271 passengers on board, continued towards its destination San Francisco without facing any further issues, said the investigators.

Advertisment

ALSO READ | Delhi police register case over call warning of possible hijack of flight to Tel Aviv

The NTSB stated that the flight crew's statements have revealed confusion regarding the setting of the 777’s flaps, which are generally extended during takeoff and the pilot incrementally retracts it during climb out.

“When the airplane reached the acceleration altitude, the captain reduced the pitch attitude slightly and called for the flap setting to be reduced to flaps 5,” said the NTSB in its report. “According to the first officer, he thought that he heard the captain announce flaps 15,” it added.

Advertisment

The report stated that the captain, who was flying the flight at an altitude of 2,100 feet (640 meters), was worried about damaging the still-extended flaps and hence, he started decelerating and descending until cockpit alarms sounded.

The officer shouts ‘pull up pull up’

“Both pilots recalled hearing the initial warnings from the ground proximity warning system (GPWS), and the first officer recalled announcing ‘pull up pull up’ along with those initial GPWS warnings,” said the NTSB report.

Advertisment

The report stated that United Airlines has brought changes to its training procedures and “issued an awareness campaign about flight path management at their training centre.”

After the incident was first reported earlier this year, United stated that an investigation was being conducted with the FAA and the pilots union “that ultimately resulted in the pilots receiving additional training.”

WATCH | Virgin Galactic makes history with first space tourist flight

United is “drawing on the lessons learned from this flight to inform the training of all United pilots,” said the airline in a statement on Thursday (August 10)

“Our pilots voluntarily reported this event and United fully co-operated with the independent investigation so that insights could be used to enhance the safety of the entire industry,” it added.

United said that additional training was provided to the two pilots after which they continued to fly for the airline.

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE