Passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles County to Las Vegas said pilots were forced to “actively” dive to avoid air collisions on Friday afternoon, July 25th.
According to Tracker Site Flight Aware, Southwest Flight #1496 took off from Hollywood Burbank Airport shortly before noon local time.
A Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson was said to have been told that another aircraft was near the airspace of the Los Angeles Airways Traffic Control Center. The agency said it was investigating what happened.
Southwest Airlines said in a statement that flight crews had to “climb and descent” to comply with onboard traffic alerts from Burbank. The airline successfully landed in Las Vegas, followed by flights.
According to the airline, two flight attendants are being medically treated for injuries, but the injured are not injured.
Passengers say pilots had to avoid “the plane that comes to us.”
One of the passengers, stand-up comedian Jimmy Door, wrote to X that he and others had jumped out of their seats during the incident and slammed their heads into the ceiling.
“The pilots had to jump aggressively to avoid air collisions at Burbank Airport,” Door wrote. “The pilot said his crash warning had gone and we needed to avoid the plane coming to us. Amazing.”
Once landed in Las Vegas, it shook the passengers and “erupted with applause,” wrote Steph Zamone, a producer of the Jimmy Door Show podcast, for X.
Other aircraft reportedly were military planes.
The southwest aircraft descended 475 feet from 14,100 feet to 13,625 feet, ABC News reported citing data from tracking site Flightradar24.
The other aircraft were Hawker Hunter’s military aircraft, reportedly flying at an altitude of about 14,653 feet when the southwest aircraft descended.
