United Flight Dived After Departure From Hawaii: "Screams On Plane"

In a scary incident, a United Airlines flight plunged towards the Pacific Ocean for 21 seconds shortly after take-off and came within 800 feet of sea level, according to a report in CNN. It is based on flight tracking data, which showed that the incident took place on December 18 last year when United Airlines Flight 1722 left Hawaii. Neither the airlines, nor the United States' Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said anyone was injured in the incident, the outlet further reported.

The terrifying dive took place a little over a minute after the take-off, as per the CNN report. The plane lost more than half of its altitude - dropping to 1,425 feet from 2,200 feet - according to data from FlightRadar24.

The flight regained its climb just above the island of Maui, the data further showed.

Rod Williams, one of the passengers who was in the Boeing 777 that day, told CNN, “It felt like you were climbing to the top of a roller coaster. It was at that point. There were a number of screams on the plane. Everybody knew that something was out of the ordinary, or at least that this was not normal.”

As per NBC News, the plane took off from Hawaii at a time when thunderstorms and showers were rolling across the region. On that day, Maui was under flash flood warnings.

The flight continued its journey and reached San Francisco at 9.03pm local time.

United Airlines said that the pilots filed the appropriate safety report after landing in San Francisco, NBC News further said.

The airline also said it coordinated with FAA on the investigation after which the pilots received additional training.

The pilots who flew the plane had 25,000 hours of flying experience between them, United said, adding that they cooperated with authorities during the investigation.

"The good thing is you had two trained pilots who were able to act and keep this from becoming a major catastrophe," Sumwalt, the former chair of the National Transportation Safety Board and a retired 737 captain, told CBS News about the incident.

The outlet also said in its report that another flight out of Hawaii experienced severe turbulence on the same day, in which 25 people were injured.