Pilots Recovered Safely After Uncommanded Descent

A Boeing 747 plunged nearly 3000 feet over London earlier this year... and investigators are still wondering why.

The Associated Press reports the plane descended as low as 1,200 feet before the crew disconnected automatic systems, and hand-flew to a safe landing a London Heathrow. Heathrow was reporting a 1,500-foot ceiling at the time.

The El Al flight, with 450 passengers aboard, was on a coupled ILS approach to Heathrow at 4000 feet when the aircraft began an uncommanded descent. Investigators say the glide slope system -- that's the part of the ILS that provides altitude guidance to the pilot or the autopilot --directed the plane to descend, and they don't know why.

Investigators noted the crew recovered the aircraft and flew back to the proper glide slope manually before making a safe landing. No other aircraft flying into Heathrow that day reported autopilot or glideslope problems... and no theory has yet been forwarded to explain the El Al 747's bizzare behavior.

An El Al spokeswoman says at no time were the passengers in danger. She says the aircraft's Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) would have warned the pilots before the aircraft became dangerously low.

The crew noted the malfunction in the 747's log... but didn't submit an incident report with authorities after landing at Heathrow. There is no indication UK's Department for Transport will investigate further on this on... for now, it remains in the unsolved mysteries catagory.

FMI: www.dft.gov.uk, www.elal.co.il