United Airlines flight UA1722 departed Kahului normally on 18 December last year until 71 seconds after take off when the aircraft entered a steep dive. The aircraft descended from 2,200 feet to just 775 feet before recovering and continuing its flight to San Francisco. The incident was first reported by The Air Current, which analyzed granular data supplied by Flightradar24.
United Airlines flight UA1722
UA1722 took off at 00:49.28.882 UTC on 19 December (14:49 local time 18 Dec). It climbed to a maximum altitude of 2,200 feet at 00:50:39.007 before descending to 775 feet at 00:50:57.500. The aircraft recovered from its dive and resumed its climb and safely arrived in San Francisco at 05:03 UTC.
According to The Air Current, the incident was reported to the airline upon landing and the FAA was notified.
Download Flightradar24 data
There are three files available for download below. The standard CSV and KML files include standard frequency data for the entire flight. The Granular CSV file includes high frequency data for the departure only.
Aircraft information
UA1722 was operated by a Boeing 777-200ER registered N212UA. The aircraft was delivered to United Airlines in July 2000.
Updates
On 14 February, two days after the incident was first publicly reported, the NTSB announced it was opening an investigation.
On 10 August 2023 the NTSB released its final report on the incident. The NTSB attributes the probable cause of the incident to, “The flight crew’s failure to manage the airplane’s vertical flightpath, airspeed, and pitch attitude following a miscommunication about the captain’s desired flap setting during the initial climb.”
After take off the captain, who was the pilot flying, called for Flaps 5, but the first officer thought he heard the captain request Flaps 15. At this point, the captain noticed the airspeed accelerate rapidly and the maximum operating speed indicator changed to a value lower than expected (due to the flaps setting).
The aircraft’s pitch attitude decreased and the airspeed increased as the flaps were moved up to Flaps 1. The aircraft’s ground proximity warning system alerted the pilots and the captain proceeded to perform a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) recovery maneuver. According the NTSB, the aircraft’s radio altimeter recorded the lowest point of the flight at 748 feet above the water’s surface.
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