On December 18, American Rod Williams, his wife and two children were on their way home from a holiday in Hawaii, when they experienced something they are unlikely to soon forget.
Williams sensed peace and no danger when he boarded the United Airlines flight that took off from Maui International Airport with San Francisco, California as its destination. But just 30 seconds into the flight, things went wrong.
The aircraft, type Boeing 777-200, had reached an altitude of approximately 2200 feet when it suddenly plunged towards the ground.
Screams filled the cabin and for a few horrifying seconds Williams clutched the armrests and hoped for the best.
Then, barely 775 feet (236 meters) above the ground, the pilots were able to steer the nose of the plane upwards, the airline website writes The Air Current. United Airlines has also confirmed the incident. No one was injured as a result of the incident.
BOEING 777-200: It was a United Airlines plane of this type that had problems in Hawaii. Photo: Reuters/NTB
sea view
– Pray for a miracle
Williams and his wife sat on opposite sides of the children and looked at each other as the plane went straight down.
– It was tense, you don’t really have a chance to speak or get any words out, you just grab the seat and pray. We asked for a miracle, because we felt that this could be the end, says Williams CNN.
The pilot was able to reassure the passengers ten minutes after the incident that everything was fine, but many were naturally shaken by the incident, explains Williams.
Weeks later, Williams, who studied aviation in college, would learn exactly how far from death he was. Then came the first case about the incident and the speech of the numbers was clear.
The plane was said to have been about 5 to 5.2 seconds away from hitting the sea.
Williams praises the pilots’ rescue action and believes they deserve praise.
– I am very grateful to be here today, he says.
This may have happened
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has announced that they will investigate the incident. This despite the fact that they immediately said that they should not do just that.
The answers in that report are expected in around 2-3 weeks.
Exactly what went wrong has not been made public yet, but aviation expert Kit Derby tells Daily Mail that he has a suspicion about what happened.
He thinks the pilots may have forgotten to change the altitude or set the wrong altitude on the autopilot.
– If they dropped that step, it may still have stood at the airport height, which will then be below you at this point, he says.
He says that there could also have been a fault in the autopilot or in the plane itself, but that this is very unusual.
The pilots, who together had around 25,000 flight hours, have received additional training after the incident, United Airlines informs New York Post.
