Error sees 737 fly just metres above homes

An investigation is underway after a Boeing 737 belonging to a US airline descended over a residential neighbourhood nowhere hear a runway.

A Boeing jet belonging to a major US airline inexplicably dived while landing in a major city flying less than 150 metres (500 feet) over a residential neighbourhood — setting off altitude alarms and frightening residents.

The dangerously low flight of low cost airline Southwest Airlines flight 4069 from Las Vegas to Oaklahoma City was recorded by transponders, and caught to notice of air traffic controllers, reported The New York Post.

Shortly after midnight on Tuesday, the Boeing 737-800 passed by Yukon High School, in the city’s west, after it was cleared to land at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, newspaper The Oklahoman reported.

“Southwest 4069, low altitude alert,” an air traffic controller warned. “You good out there?”

There jet belonged to low coast carrier Southwest Airlines.

The jet eventually landed safely after it regained altitude and circled around the airport, the newspaper reported.

While the plane was a 737 it was not one of the newer 737 Max jets.

Officials confirmed that the plane missed the approach when it first tried to land.

The too-close-for-comfort flying left nearby locals rattled.

“Thought I was having cool dreams about airplanes other night but actually had a 737 buzz my house,” one person wrote on Facebook.

“It woke me up and I thought it was gonna hit my house,” another person said in a local Facebook group, according to The Oklahoman.

The plane as it descend over a school in Yukon, near Oaklahoma City. Picture: Andrew Gabel/KFOR.

Southwest said in a statement it was investigating the incident with federal officials.

“Southwest is following its robust safety management system and is in contact with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to understand and address any irregularities with the aircraft’s approach to the airport,” according to a spokesman.

“Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees.”

Wednesday’s startling flying episode comes as the FAA confirmed to USA Today this week it was probing how a Southwest plane dropped to just 122 metres above the Pacific Ocean en route to Hawaii in April.

That plane plunged at “an abnormally high rate of more than 4000 feet per minute” before pilots were able to tug the plane up, according to a memo from the airline company to pilots and obtained by website Bloomberg.

This story was published in The New York Post and is reproduced with permission.