Originally Posted by Jason R

Hello all,

I am new to this site and joined because I am seeking answers to something that happened to me years ago.

I have not done a lot of flying in my life but the little that I did do, I used to enjoy. I have always had a window seat and would have my face glued to the window.

However, this would all change on a Southwest flight in June of 1993, from Las Vegas, Nevada to San Diego, California, in the middle of the night, on a red eye flight to go back home. Maybe around the 2nd or 3rd of the month?

My cousin decided to marry her long time boyfriend, before he shipped off to boot camp, for the military. I saw them as they were leaving and tagged along to go with them to Vegas and also, visit my Mom, who lives out there.

Since this incident, I have only flown one other time, in August of 1999, from San Diego, to Dallas, and back. And while those flights had no issues whatsoever, it has been to stressful for me to fly, since then.

In recent years, I have been wanting to start flying again but have been seeking answers to what may have happened on that flight in 1993?

First, what happened is not a knock on Southwest Airlines or the pilot. If anything, that person deserved a metal because nobody lost their life.

So, we took off from Vegas and it was a very late flight. Off of memory, around 11:00pm or maybe 12:00am? The flight is only around an hour and I don’t think you get up to a very high elevation. Maybe 20,000’ to 25,000’ tops, due to it being a shorter flight.

The plane was a 737. I’m assuming it was a Classic. It had the engines with the flat part on the bottom of the engine cowels and had no winglets. (In recent years I have being done research on different commercial airliner planes, to try and learn more about them.)

The plane took off, got to I’m assuming cruising altitude. It was the beginning of the flight and we were still over the desert somewhere? The flight attendants started bringing drinks to everyone and then the Pilot came on the intercom. He said everyone needed to stay buckled up because we were about to hit so strong turbulence. He didn’t even get the word turbulence out of his mouth and the entire plane dropped. It felt like a force on top of the plane pushing it down. When the plane dropped, the flight was level but then the plane went into a nose dive, that was very steep. The plane lost all internal and external lights and both engines also lost power. I was on the wing, on the right side of the plane and could hear the engines slowing down and heard them go quiet. Peoplevstarted freaking out. The flight attendentent next to me, got pinned on the ceiling as the plane dove.

As everyone was freaking out and the plane was still in a dive, I could hear the engines trying to turn back on. They finally did so after maybe 30 seconds into the nose dive. The pilot was able to pull out of it but I’m assuming that due to us flying at a lower altitude, when he pulled out, he put the plane into a very steep climb. It seemed much steeper than take off. I’m assuming he may possibly have been trying to clear something. Maybe a mountain? When the plane lost all power, everything was pitch black. The plane, outside the plane and because we were over the desert, there were no lights at all. I just remember being pinned into my seat and unable to move. As the pilot pulled out, the poor flight attendant hit the floor and as we started climbing again, she remained there. Once we leveled out, other flight attendants came to her aide and took her to the back of the plane. The pilot came on and said the plane was having some mechanical issues and we would still be experiencing bad turbulence. He said that we may possibly divert to a closer airport but never did. The remainder of the flight, everyone had to stay buckled up and the plane seemed like it was fighting the pilot the entire time. All the way into San Diego, it seemed like the plane would drop and the pilot would have to keep it on course. As we began our descent to land, it was still the same thing. It wasn’t a gradual decent but more like the pilot fighting the the plane as it descended. When we landed, we hit hard. The plane actually bounced and then then hit the runway somewhat hard again. Once the nose touched down, the plane then did fine.

An ambulance met us just off the runway and took the injured flight attendant off the plane. We then went to the gate to get off the plane. Before I boarding, the pilot got back on the intercom and apologized for the rough flight. He said they hit some unexpected turbulence and then something mechanically happened. He didn’t specify what but whatever it was, clearly it affected how the plane performed.

The entire flight, even over the desert, was clear. Not a cloud in the sky. The weather in Vegas, was warm, but not too hot. Maybe mid 80’s? That night it cooled down but not so bad that I couldn’t wear shorts.

After the pilot got the planes engines started again and the lights back on, the lights in the cabin remained on but were very dim. I don’t know if that had to do with anything or not, but they stayed that way during the remainder of the flight.

I know I wrote a book but I came on here to find possible answers as to what possibly could have happened? That is why I tried to be as detailed as possible.

Any help would be much appreciated! I now live in Colorado and would like to fly from Denver, to Vegas to see my Mom again or even other cities, to visit. But, before I can do that, it would help if I was able to understand what caused the issues on that flight 25 years ago.