Ryanair Boeing 737 probe after plane plunges 2,000ft in 17 seconds at 321mph

Ryanair has launched an investigation after a Boeing 737 Max plunged at an alarming speed as it approached London Stansted Airport, it has emerged.

Flight FR1269 dived at an astonishing 321mph in just 17 seconds during its journey from Klagenfurt, Austria, on December 4 last year. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch probed the incident and logged the aircraft’s steep decline as a “high speed and high nose down pitch attitude” during the final approach.

The terrifying incident happened during the second landing attempt. Incredibly, none of the nearly 200 passengers or crew onboard were harmed, reported the i newspaper. Ryanair acknowledged the occurrence of an "unstable approach" before landing and confirmed the company's cooperation with the AAIB as they tried to get to the bottom of it.

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The aircraft landed safely around ten minutes after a 'go around' was performed. A spokesperson for the airline said in a statement: “This was a case of an unstable approach. The crew performed a ‘go around’ and landed normally on the second approach in line with Ryanair's procedure.

"Ryanair reported this matter to the AAIB in compliance with our operating manual. We have provided full details to, and are cooperating fully with this routine AAIB investigation. We can make no further comment until such time as the AAIB have completed their review of this flight.”

The AAIB said: “The serious incident is still under investigation so we can’t provide any further detail at the moment. The aircraft landed safely and there were no reported injuries to passengers or crew. The investigation is nearing completion and likely to be published sometime in the autumn.”

The details have been made public weeks after a separate investigation was launched after a Boeing 737 MAX 8 hurtled towards the sea before managing to pull back into a climb just 400ft from the water. It plunged at a maximum descent rate of about 4,400ft per minute off the coast of Hawaii on April 11.

The Federal Aviation Administration is looking into the incident with the Southwest Airlines flight. It happened after poor weather conditions forced the pilots to bypass a landing attempt. While circling back to land, the first officer "inadvertently pushed forward on the control column while following thrust lever movement commanded by the autothrottle", according to a memo sent out to pilots.

It comes after another Boeing 737 Max suffered damage to parts of the plane’s structure after it went into a “Dutch roll” during a Southwest Airlines flight last month, U.S. investigators said. The incident happened as the jet cruised at 34,000 feet from Phoenix to Oakland, California, on May 25, but Southwest did not notify the National Transportation Safety Board about the roll or damage to the jetliner until June 7, the NTSB said.