Southwest Airlines flight nearly plummets into Pacific Ocean after plunging 400ft

A Southwest Airlines plane traveling to Hawaii came within 400 feet of slamming into the Pacific Ocean after weather conditions forced pilots to change course, according to a report.

Southwest Flight 2786 - a Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft - had been flying from Honolulu International Airport to Lihue Airport in Kauai on April 11, according to a Southwest Airlines memo to pilots obtained by Bloomberg News this week.

Passengers on the flight were left in a panic after the plane quickly dropped from nearly 16,000 feet to an altitude of 409 feet.

According to the memo, the incident occurred after an aborted landing attempt due to poor weather conditions that blocked pilots from seeing the runway.

The memo also noted that the captain of the flight had put the “newer” first officer in command of the 100-mile inter-island flight, despite the impending weather forecast.

That first officer “inadvertently” pushed forward on the control column and cut the speed, which caused the plane to descend rapidly, the memo said.

A warning system sounded an alarm to passengers that the aircraft was getting close to the terrain.

The captain then ordered the first officer to increase thrust, causing the plane to “climb aggressively” at 8,500 feet per minute, according to the memo.

The flight - which should have been about 22 minutes long - departed Honolulu at 6:45pm, but after the incident, the plane returned to Honolulu at 8:09pm.

There were no reported injuries on the flight.

A Southwest Airlines spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News: “Nothing is more important to Southwest than safety. Through our robust Safety Management System, the event was addressed appropriately as we always strive for continuous improvement.”

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said it is “investigating the incident.”