Near-miss over old Tampa Bay: Southwest Airlines flight scare

— I thought I had to tell my husband how I was going to die — recounted one of the passengers of the flight from Columbus, Ohio, to Tampa, Florida. Along with other people on the Southwest Airlines plane, she found herself less than 160 feet above the ground at one point.

In the United States, air travel is commonplace. One of the popular routes starts in Columbus, Ohio, and ends in Tampa, Florida, covering about 1,000 miles.

This route is free of more challenging sections and is well known to American pilots. Therefore, nothing indicated that on the route—during the Sunday flight on July 14—passengers would experience a real nightmare over Old Tampa Bay.

As reported by the "Tampa Bay Times," during the mentioned flight, the plane, while over water, slowly lowered its altitude to 148 feet. At that time, as experts note, even a gust of wind could have caused a severe disaster. Passengers, who noticed being suddenly so close to Old Tampa Bay, panicked.

We descended very low, and then suddenly we just lifted, and they didn’t say anything at first [...] Everyone was looking at each other — said one of the passengers of the flight from Ohio to Florida in an interview with the "Tampa Bay Times".

Another passenger mentioned on Fox News that she was already thinking about the worst. — I thought I had to tell my husband how I was going to die. I started recording a video — she said. Experts are still investigating the matter, but—according to initial findings—the key factor in this situation was human error.

Ultimately, it all comes down to one weak link in the chain, which is the human factor [...] I begin to suspect that this crew did not have enough rest — assessed certified flight instructor Robert Katz in the "Tampa Bay Times".