Southwest passenger describes flying 150 feet over Florida waters after pilot calmly blames ‘gusty winds’
A Southwest Airlines passenger believed she was about to die when she witnessed her flight flying dangerously close to Old Tampa Bay waters, miles from the airport.
Nancy Allen was aboard Southwest Flight 425 from Columbus, Ohio, to Tampa, Florida, on July 14 when the plane dropped to below 200 feet over the water near the Courtney Campbell Causeway.
“I think the thing that I first saw that really concerned me was how close to the water we were. I didn’t know at the time that we were flying necessarily east, but I knew that Tampa Bay was way too close to us, and that was my big red flag,” Allen told WTVT.
At its lowest point, the Boeing 737 Max 8 was only 150 feet over the water, and still 4 miles from its destination.
Flights over the region typically are around 1,225 feet, according to flight-tracking service Flightradar24.
The panic-stricken passenger, who had a window seat on the terrifying flight, took out her camera to record what she believed was her imminent death.
“We were just low to the water, then high, then low, oh my God,” Allen can be heard saying behind the camera in the video obtained by Fox 13.
During the heart-pounding moment, Allen texted details about the traumatic flight to her husband.
“Attempting to land. This is sketchy,” Allen wrote.
“Abort. Abort.” “Soooooo sketchy,” the messages read.
“I literally was thinking, ‘I need to let my husband know how I’m going to die today.’ So I started videotaping just to try to understand what was happening.”
Allen wasn’t the only one worried about the low-flying plane as air traffic controllers had alerted the pilots of the danger.
“Southwest 425 low altitude alert, check your altitude,” tower officials told the pilots, according to audio obtained by Fox 13 Tampa Bay.
The jet flew past Tampa International Airport as poor weather had rolled into the area and the flight eventually landed 200 miles away in Fort Lauderdale.
Despite the dramatic water-skimming flyby, Allen says the flight deck didn’t seem too concerned.
“When the pilot came on, he said something along the lines in a very calm manner of ‘There were some gusty winds that are preventing us from landing. That happens sometimes and we’re out of gas. So we’re going to go to Fort Lauderdale and gas up,'” Allen said.
In a recreated simulation of the July 14 flight, Peter Repak of the SIM Center Tampa Bay displayed the safety measures in place in case a plane ever flies below a certain height.
“When you’re landing, the aircraft calls out ‘1,000, 500, 400, 300, 200…’ so you know what your altitude is,” Repak explained. “Now having said that, inclement weather can throw you off, things can happen, a million things can happen, but being 150 feet above Courtney Campbell bridge … that’s a little off by all imagination.”
The FAA announced it is investigating the low-altitude incident, along with two others involving Southwest flights from earlier this year.
In June, a plane triggered a low-altitude alert when it registered at only 525 feet above the ground 9 miles from the Oklahoma City airport.
In April, a flight was only about 400 feet over the ocean near Hawaii after the pilot accidentally pushed forward on the control column and the plane hit a maximum descent rate of about 4,400 feet per minute.
