Southwest flight 'aggressively' descends to dodge another aircraft, passengers say
Passengers onboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles County to Las Vegas said their pilot was forced to "aggressively" dive to avoid a midair collision Friday afternoon, July 25.
Shortly before noon local time, Southwest Flight #1496 took off from Hollywood Burbank Airport, according to tracker site Flight Aware.
Crew were told that another aircraft was in the vicinity of the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center airspace, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson told Paste BN. The agency said it is investigating what occurred.
Flight crew were required to "climb and descend" to comply with onboard traffic alerts out of Burbank, Southwest Airlines said in a statement. The flight continued and landed successfully in Las Vegas, the airline confirmed.
Two flight attendants are being medically treated for injuries but no customers were injured, the airline said.
Passenger says pilot had to avoid 'plane coming at us'
Stand-up comedian Jimmy Dore, one of the passengers, wrote on X that he and others onboard flew out of their seats during the incident, hitting their heads on the ceiling.
"Pilot had to dive aggressively to avoid midair collision over Burbank airport," Dore wrote. "Pilot said his collision warning went off & he needed to avoid plane coming at us. Wow."
Upon landing in Vegas, shaken up passengers "erupted with applause," "The Jimmy Dore Show" podcast producer Stef Zamorano wrote on X.
Other aircraft was reportedly a military plane
The Southwest aircraft abruptly descended 475 feet from 14,100 feet down to 13,625 feet, ABC News reported citing data from tracking site FlightRadar24.
The other aircraft was reportedly a Hawker Hunter military aircraft that flew at an altitude of around 14,653 feet when the Southwest aircraft descended, according to ABC News.