Terrifying moment Boeing 737 plunges within 500 feet of neighborhood

Residents in Oklahoma City were left terrified when a Boeing 737 plane suddenly plunged to around 500 feet over a local neighborhood.

The incident took place shortly after midnight local time on Wednesday (June 19), after Southwest Airlines flight 4069 took off from Las Vegas.

The flight had nearly made it to its destination and was cleared to land at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, when all of a sudden it began to drop in the sky while still nine miles from the airport.

The sudden descent set off altitude alarms including the Minimum Safe Altitude Warning, prompting an air traffic control worker to get in touch with the pilot as the plane reached about 525 feet above the ground.

Audio from the incident heard the controller saying: "Southwest 4069, low altitude alert. You good out there?"

The pilot assured air traffic control that everything was under control, responding: "Yeah, we’re going around, 4069."

The plane hit its lowest altitude while flying over Yukon High School in Oklahoma at 12:06am local time.

The air traffic controller told the pilot to maintain 3,000 feet and thankfully the plane didn't fully crash to the ground, instead circling over the neighborhood before it made a safe landing on another runway at the airport.

The flight circled before landing at the airport. (NBC News)

While the Southwest Airlines flight did manage to land safely in Oklahoma, it wasn't without terrifying those below first.

A number of locals took to social media to share their experiences of the incident, with one person writing: "Thought I was having cool dreams about airplanes other night but actually had a 737 buzz my house."

Another wrote: "It woke me up and I thought it was gonna hit my house."

Speaking to News 4, local man Spencer Basoco recalled: "I was kind of like halfway in between sleep being awake, and I just hear this WHOOOSH.

"And I thought at first, like a storm was blowing in… because it just sounded like a wall of wind. And I looked out the window where the sound was coming from… if you go a few blocks away is the high school. And I just see a plane."

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed on Thursday (June 20) that it has launched an investigation into the incident.

“Southwest is following its robust safety management system and is in contact with the Federal Aviation Administration to understand and address any irregularities with the aircraft’s approach to the airport," a spokesperson said in a statement cited by ABC News.

"Nothing is more important to Southwest than the safety of our customers and employees.”

LADbible Group has contacted Southwest Airlines for further comment.