By David Shepardson
(Reuters) – The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday they will investigate a Southwest Airlines flight that departed from a temporarily closed runway in Maine earlier this week.
The FAA said on Tuesday that an airport vehicle left the runway before Southwest Flight 4805, a Boeing 737, began its takeoff and departed around 5:45 a.m. local time (09:45 GMT).
Southwest said it is in contact with the NTSB and FAA to understand the circumstances of the departure. After the incident, the plane continued safely to Baltimore, Southwest said.
Several other incidents involving Southwest flights in recent months have raised concerns.
Last week, the FAA said it was investigating a Southwest flight that descended to a low altitude of about 500 feet (152.4 m), about 9 miles (14.5 km) from the Oklahoma City airport.
After the automated minimum safe altitude warning sounded, an air traffic controller alerted the crew of Southwest Airlines Flight 4069, which had departed Las Vegas.
Earlier this month, the FAA and NTSB said they were investigating a May 25 Southwest flight of a Boeing 737 MAX. The NTSB said the plane suffered a “Dutch roll” at 34,000 feet while en route from Phoenix to Oakland, California. These asymmetrical lateral movements are named after a Dutch ice skating technique and can pose serious safety risks.
The FAA said this month it was also investigating a Southwest 737 MAX 8 flight in April that came within 400 feet of the ocean off the coast of Hawaii after poor weather conditions led pilots to avoid an attempted landing at the airport. from Lihue.
During the go-around, the first officer “inadvertently pushed forward the control column while following the movement of the thrust lever commanded by the autothrottle,” according to a June 7 airline memo, and the plane began to descend rapidly, reaching a maximum rate of descent of about 4,400 feet per minute.
Pilots in a post-report said that seeing the severity of the flight “through the animations was a significant and emotional event,” Southwest said, adding that the incident prompted the airline to review data and trends related to its procedures, training , standards and performance.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Sharon Singleton, Tomasz Janowski and Nick Zieminski)
