Belly Up Flying

City aerial at late night

The serious incident on the Air Nippon flight appears to have been caused by the co-pilot flipping the wrong switch to unlock the cockpit door to allow the aircraft captain to return after he had used the bathroom causing the plane to dive and fly almost belly-up, according to the Japan Transport Safety Board 

An All Nippon Airways (ANK) Boeing 737-700 performing flight NH-140 from Naha (Okinawa) to Tokyo Haneda (Japan) with 112 passengers and 5 crew. The plane was on automatic pilot and flying about 12,500 meters (41,000 feet) about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture, when the narrow-body twin-engine aircraft violently rolled until it reached 131.7 degrees to the left, and its nose pointed down as much as 23 degrees at one point.

Two female crew members on board suffered whiplash after the airplane plummeted about 1,900 meters (6,230 feet) in 30 seconds which occurred at 22:50 p.m. on September 6. The flight continued to Tokyo's Haneda Airport for a safe landing.