The plane's nose continued to drop downward. The co-pilot repeatedly said, "Pull up, pull up, pull up, pull up."

 

There were 10 crew members and 271 passengers on board. The co-pilot could see via the windshield that they were cutting through the cloud cover as the plane's nose continued to drop downward. The Boeing 777 descended more than 1,400 feet (427 meters) toward the Pacific Ocean from more than 2,200 feet (670 meters).

 

Voice 9, International Desk: United plane dropped close to the ocean's surface due to pilot's misunderstanding. Following the confusion between the captain and co-pilot, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded in a final report that the crew had failed to maintain the plane's vertical path, velocity, and nose direction.

Federal investigators said on Thursday that a United Airlines jet's dive in December, just after leaving from Hawaii, brought it within 748 feet (228 meters) of the surface of the ocean due to an issue in pilot communication.

The captain ordered the co-pilot, or first officer, to reset the wing flaps during a routine takeoff in heavy rain at Kahului Airport on the island of Maui. However, the co-pilot misheard the captain's request and heard "15" instead of "five," according to the NTSB.

The jet was rapidly speeding and pitching downward, as the pilots soon recognized. The co-pilot said, “I was aware at this time that the skipper was having trouble with airspeed control.” The co-pilot eventually admitted to the investigators, "I couldn't be sure what the captain was going through.”

The co-pilot could see via the windshield that they were cutting through the cloud cover as the plane's nose continued to drop downward.

He stated, "I knew right away the gravity of our predicament. I repeatedly said, "Pull up, pull up, pull up, pull up." The alarm was also raised by the plane's ground proximity warning system.

The Boeing 777 descended more than 1,400 feet (427 meters) towards the Pacific Ocean from more than 2,200 feet (670 meters) before the pilots, who were not identified in the report, took control.

The chief flight attendant informed the captain that "everyone was OK" and that there appeared to be no damage to the aircraft, thus the captain made the decision to fly to San Francisco. The rest of the journey was uneventful.

There were 10 crew members and 271 passengers on board. The 55-year-old captain had a sizable amount of flying experience—nearly 20,000 hours. The co-pilot has logged 5,300 hours in the air.

According to United spokesperson Joshua Freed, "There's nothing more important than the safety of our crew and customers, which is why we're drawing on the lessons learned from this flight to inform the training of all United pilots." "Our pilots reported this incident voluntarily, and United cooperated fully,"

The incident was reported by the United pilots as part of a voluntary safety-reporting procedure, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which governs airlines, earlier this year. According to the FAA, it looked into the event "and took appropriate action."

Before The Air Current published their study of data acquired from the jet, the incident received little media notice. Two months passed before the NTSB became aware of the event, by which time data from the 'black boxes' had been gathered.