According to government authorities in the United States, a pilot error caused a United Airlines flight plunging towards the ocean, coming within 748 feet of crashing into the Pacific Ocean in 2022.
The National Transportation Safety Board stated in a recently published final report that the cause of United Airlines flight 1722’s deep dive was “the flight crew’s failure to manage the airplane’s vertical flightpath” following an apparent “miscommunication” between both pilots over the position of the plane’s wing flaps.
The event occurred a minute after the Boeing 777 took off from Hawaii’s Kahului Airport on December 18, 2022, amid severe rain and turbulence, according to the NTSB.
According to the investigators, the flight, which had 271 passengers on board, continued to San Francisco without incident.
The flight crew’s answers suggested a misunderstanding of the setting of the 777’s flaps, which are typically extended before takeoff and incrementally retracted by the captain during climb out, according to NTSB.
“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.
According to the report, the captain, who was flying the flight at a height of 2,100 feet (640 meters), was concerned about breaking the still-extended flaps, so he began decelerating and falling until cockpit alarms sounded.
The officer yelled, “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.
The report stated that United Airlines has made changes to its training procedures and “issued an awareness campaign about flight path management at their training center.”
After the incident was originally reported earlier this year, United claimed that an inquiry was being performed with the FAA and the pilots union “that ultimately resulted in the pilots receiving additional training.”
United is “drawing on the lessons learned from this flight to inform the training of all United pilots,” according to a statement issued by the airline on Thursday (August 10).
“Our pilots voluntarily reported this event, and United fully cooperated with the independent investigation so that insights could be used to enhance the safety of the entire industry,” it added.
United stated that the two pilots received extra training, after which they continued to fly for the carrier.