FAA investigating after Southwest jet buzzes within hundreds of feet of Yukon neighborhood

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is looking into what caused a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 to get within several hundred feet above the ground over the City of Yukon earlier this week.

Flight data shows Southwest Airlines Flight 4069, a Boeing 737-800 en route to Oklahoma City from Las Vegas, flew as low as 400 feet above the City of Yukon just after 12 a.m. Wednesday morning, while on a final approach to Will Rogers World Airport.

Boeing given 90 days by FAA to come up with a plan to improve safety and quality of manufacturing

Air traffic control audio obtained by News 4 indicated the plane flew so low, it triggered a ‘low altitude alert’ in the Will Rogers World Airport control tower.

The plane hit its lowest altitude while flying over Yukon High School at 12:06 a.m. Wednesday.

It was loud enough to wake up Spencer Basoco, who lives a few blocks from the school.

“I was kind of like halfway in between sleep being awake, and I just hear this WHOOOSH,” Basoco told News 4. “And I thought at first, like a storm was blowing in… because it just sounded like a wall of wind. And I looked out the window where the sound was coming from… if you go a few blocks away is the high school. And I just see a plane.”

A News 4 viewer shared video of the plane captured by his doorbell camera. It shows lights blinking on a jet-liner flying low above a neighborhood a good distance from the viewer’s house, before becoming obscured behind the roofs of nearby homes.

“I knew it wasn’t normal,” Basoco said.

In the air traffic control audio obtained by News 4, it was indicated that the plane’s pilots intended to land on runway 13, a crosswind runway going diagonally across the airfield at Will Rogers World Airport.

As the plane flew hundreds of feet above Yukon High School, an air traffic controller can be heard telling the pilot his plane set off a ‘low altitude alert’ in the airport’s control tower. At that point, the plane was still nine miles away from the runway.

Could Will Rogers World Airport get a new name?

“Southwest 4069… low altitude alert,” the air traffic controller said. “You doing okay?”

“Yeah we’re going around 4069,” the pilot responded.

At that moment, the plane was only 400-500 feet above the ground.

“To me, that’s way too low,” KFOR Chopper 4 Pilot Mason Dunn said. “Even if he is lined up on the wrong runway, he’s extremely low out there.”

After receiving the low altitude alert, flight records show the plane quickly gained altitude, climbing from around 450 feet above ground when it crossed over the northern edge of Yukon High School’s property, to more than 1,000 feet above ground by the time it crossed the southern edge of the school’s property.

Flight records indicate the plane then circled around, and reapproached the airport from the north, eventually landing on runway 17R, a different runway which runs due north/south.

The next time the plane got below 500 feet was within one mile of runway 17R on its final landing approach.

“Being this low out over a residential area is not normal,” Dunn said. “He doesn’t get that low again until he’s a mile from the airport.”

Boeing confirms it’s in talks to buy Spirit AeroSystems, its key supplier on the troubled 737 Max

News 4 reached out to Southwest Airlines. In a statement, a Southwest spokesperson confirmed the airline is cooperating with the FAA to determine what happened.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.