Incident: Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737 drops 7,000 feet in seconds.
Passengers on a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737 got quite a scare when their plane suddenly descended 7,000 feet last Sunday.
The plane, which was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Tawau, had to turn around and return to the airport.
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Malaysia Airlines Flight MH2664 had been in flight for 30 minutes when the incident occurred. A passenger on board later said on social media that the plane plunged 7,000 feet in a matter of seconds, Simple Flying reported.
The aircraft operating was 9M-MLS, an eight-year-old Boeing 737-800. The flight-tracking website RadarBox shows that the plane was flying over the South China Sea at about 30,000 feet when a sudden descent occurred. It shows a drop of about 17,000 feet, which lasted about 10 minutes. This is consistent with the passenger’s comments, who said the plane was “unstable” during those 10 minutes. A second, smaller descent followed the first.
Malaysia Airlines attributes incident to “technical problem”
Malaysia Airlines says the plane experienced technical problems during bad weather. The airline added that the pilots decided to return to Kuala Lumpur as a precautionary measure.
→ Second black box recovered from plane crashed in China.
“Flight MH2664 from Kuala Lumpur to Tawau on April 3 performed a return aerial turnaround due to technical problems with the aircraft, exacerbated by bad weather en route,” the Malaysia Airlines statement said. “The aircraft landed safely at 17.03 hours. The safety of our crew and passengers remains of paramount importance to Malaysia Airlines.”
The pilots received much praise on social media for their handling of a complicated incident and decision to turn around. While the investigation is still ongoing, the Malaysian Civil Aviation Authority says it will examine the plane’s internal flight data monitoring system, but indicates that the pilots appear to have responded correctly.
Photo: Anna Zvereva/Wikipedia
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