Passenger onboard terrifying United Airlines
flight that nose-dived 1,400ft during
epic storm describes people 'screaming'
as plane came within FIVE SECONDS of hitting
Pacific Ocean: 'You’re gripping the
seat and praying under your breath'
Daily Mail (UK),
by
Alex Hammer
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
2/14/2023 2:32:58 AM
A passenger onboard the terrifying United Airlines flight that came within feet of crashing into the Pacific Ocean described his and his family's harrowing experience.
Rod Williams II said he was sitting near the back of United Flight 1722 with his wife and kids on December 18 when it suddenly came down.
The plane, which had been headed to San Francisco from Hawaii when it found itself in an intense storm, proceeded to go into a 'dramatic, nose-down' dive for about eight to 10 seconds, creating mass pandemonium in the cabin, Williams said.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
petrichor 2/14/2023 6:46:41 AM (No. 1402363)
I doubt they were within 5 seconds of crashing into the ocean, but I'm sure it was a harrowing experience. In fact, so harrowing that lawyers are huddling up for lawsuits as we speak.
15 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Dodge Boy 2/14/2023 6:49:45 AM (No. 1402366)
Lovely. We will be boarding a United flight from Denver to Maui this morning after yesterday's connecting flight from our west slope town was cancelled after the first officer did his pre-flight walk-around and noticed a nice puddle of hydraulic oil under the belly of the plane.
But I really think yesterday's Flight 1722 just had the misfortune of flying through a nasty downdraft after it departed Kahului Airport. It's been stormy around the islands for several weeks now, so an incident like this was inevitable.
18 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Highlander 2/14/2023 7:19:08 AM (No. 1402386)
Did they all managed to keep their masks on?
13 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
downnout 2/14/2023 7:34:13 AM (No. 1402388)
This is why it’s a good idea to keep your seat belt buckled.
15 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Aud 2/14/2023 8:01:33 AM (No. 1402405)
This reminded me of another United Airlines jet’s much worse dive from above O’Neill, Nebraska in 1963: “UAL 720-B, Flight 746, which had encountered severe turbulence in the cirrus portion of a thunderstorm at 37, 500 feet over O'Neill, Nebraska on 12 July 1963. The events that ensued were taken from a Fairchild Flight Recorder #1127 installed aboard the aircraft. In this case the aircraft had dived from 37, 500 feet to 12, 000 feet before being brought under control.”
If I remember rightly, the pilots had to apply full throttle down (!) to pull out of the dive. Plenty of time to make a good Act of Contrition!
8 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Safari Man 2/14/2023 8:58:36 AM (No. 1402470)
Biden was trying to shoot them down.
5 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
red1066 2/14/2023 9:51:33 AM (No. 1402513)
They couldn't divert the plane around the storm? I've been on plenty of flights that did just that. Yes, the flight lasted a little longer, but at least the plane didn't fly directly through a storm.
8 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
davew 2/14/2023 9:59:49 AM (No. 1402522)
The analysis by Juan Brown on YouTube was interesting. He's a working 777 pilot and looked at the incident. Although there was reported turbulence at cruise altitudes, there were no surface reports. The UA 1722 pilots did not report a microburst event at the time which would have been standard procedure as a safety courtesy to other departing pilots. There is also doppler radar at most large airports that can detect microbursts in the approach and departure areas and alert ATC and pilots. I haven't seen any such reports made public at this point.
What Juan noticed is that this incident was similar to an incident with an Emerates 777 in December. In this event the flight crew did not properly set the intended departure altitude in the flight director (autopilot) and it was set to 0 feet. Once they reached about 2000 ft after takeoff they switched on the autopilot and it began a descent to 0 feet under climb power. They were able to identify the problem and recovered from the dive in time to prevent collision with the ground.
Since there is no public investigation of this event, we will never know for sure what actually happened but the turbulence scenario doesn't agree with the PIREPs at the time of the event.
9 people like this.
As they were going down...I wonder if George Costanza said he "cheated in the contest" like the final Seinfeld episode.
3 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
danu 2/14/2023 12:50:22 PM (No. 1402703)
FTA: The plane, which had been headed to San Francisco from Hawaii when it found itself in an intense storm, proceeded to go into a 'dramatic, nose-down' dive for about eight to 10 seconds, creating mass pandemonium in the cabin, Williams said.
'pan-demon-ium' ...
Good vs. Evil.
1 person likes this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
caljeepgirl 2/14/2023 3:39:27 PM (No. 1402838)
First read about this in the original Air Current article, which contains some interesting, really more complete, technical information (https://theaircurrent.com/aviation-safety/united-maui-dive-ua1722-close-call/).
I agree that the pilots are definitely to be commended for 'pulling out of' that one!! Glad I wasn't aboard....not sure I'd be flying again after that experience (at my age, might not have survived the G's, anyway!)
1 person likes this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Faithfully 2/15/2023 6:09:52 PM (No. 1403777)
There are no atheists in a foxhole.
0 people like this.
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