This has got to be one of the worst written articles. A few facts probably in error, but I wasn't there.

Plane headed to KCI drops 26,000 feet in 10 minutes - KCTV5

SWA IND-MCI

30 miles from MCI, the landing airport, when pressurization issue discovered

Allegedly at 36,000 feet, descended (I mean "dropped") to 10,000 feet in 11 minutes. That's about 2400 feet per minute descent. That is no where near an unusual descent rate in a 737.

So scheduled to land at MCI and still at 36000 feet 30 miles from the airport? This makes no sense at all. That's greater than a 10:1 descent rate. It must be the new RNAV RNP Space Shuttle One arrival.

Glad everyone was OK, but my question to a SWA pilot: the article says the flight was scheduled to arrive at 3:50PM but didn't arrive until 3:59PM. Does the flight crew get overs for that?

And for those who weren't able to tell: I am knocking the article, not SWA, as there is obviously some incorrect information posted. Followed up by a light-hearted but honest question about overs.

Flight Track Log ? SWA1731 ? 03-Apr-2014 ? KIND - KMCI ? FlightAware

I personally don't see anything out of the ordinary for the given circumstances. If in fact, there was a loss of pressurization, the crew did what they were supposed to do. Now it they were flying over the Andes, then those headlines would really get my full attention.
I guess there isn't much going on at MCI that this kind of events are given so much coverage...

Not that it applies here, but I hear that 737s also have trouble maintaining altitude when the fuel tanks are empty.....


Must be a Boeing thing.

Actually if you read into the article the time states at 3:13 they started the descent, reaching 10,000 feet at 3:24. 26 minutes before their scheduled arrival. Landing at 3:59.

I've heard that your TAS is slower at lower altitudes, maybe the pilots even pulled the speed back a bit to conserve some fuel and protect the plane if any structural problems existed. That might account for the unusually late arrival.

No no no, you're mistaken. CNN has only done an analysis on the 777 not being able to hold altitude when the fuel tanks are empty. ;-P

I suspect the next in-depth analysis will be CNN doing a report on how passengers can't breath when there is a loss of all oxygen...but only on the 737. Maybe that simulator technician up in Canada will show us how it's done.

This is bs !!! Sometimes I need to descent 2700 fpm with tailwinds in a rnav arrival to make it happen ! Thats nothing ! Fck wannabeers

Sometimes I descend at 2701 fpm.

This is epic awesomeness!

I wanna beer. Is that a bad thing?

Yep. Maybe the second best one ever...

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