A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 headed from Kahului to Las Vegas was diverted to Honolulu on Sunday night after a passenger had a medical issue. The plane was about 90 minutes into the trip when the crew turned it back over the Pacific Ocean.
Flight data showed the aircraft left Kahului around 8:40 p.m. Hawaiian Standard Time and was cruising at about 32,500 feet when it made the U-turn. The crew also issued distress code 7700, and emergency services were waiting when the plane reached Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu just before midnight Monday, July 6.
No injuries were reported among the passengers and crew. That eased the most immediate concern, but it did not answer the one question travelers were asking: what kind of medical event was serious enough to trigger an emergency diversion on a trans-Pacific flight.
Southwest said the diversion happened because of a passenger suffering a medical issue, but it does not share additional details about customer medical events. The airline later added an extra flight from Honolulu to Las Vegas for passengers affected by the diversion, a reminder that the disruption did not end when the plane landed in Honolulu.
For the passengers, the flight became an overnight interruption instead of a direct trip across the Pacific. For the airline, the Southwest emergency flight diversion was contained without reported injuries, but the unanswered medical detail remains the part of the incident Southwest has chosen not to open up.
