FAA Investigation Continues Into Southwest Low Altitude Alert At TPA

The FAA continues to investigate a Southwest Airlines flight that descended to within 150 feet of the surface some 4 miles from the end of the runway at Tampa International Airport in Florida, according to ADS-B data posted by FlightAware. At that point in the GPS approach, the aircraft should have been at 1,600 feet. There was convective weather in the area, and a previous flight reported that the worst was about 7 miles out on the final approach to 7,000-foot-long Runway 10. While flying its approach, the crew of Southwest Flight WN-425 descended from about 8,000 feet to near the surface in about seven minutes at a steady rate of approximately 1,000 feet per minute.

The tower controller issued a low altitude alert (in a calm voice) and the crew responded. About 50 seconds later, the tower asked if the flight was going around. The crew responded they were.

The Boeing 737 Max landed safely at Fort Lauderdale International Airport about 40 minutes later. After some time on the ground, the aircraft returned to Tampa International.