A Southwest Airlines flight had a scary landing after taking off from Hollywood Burbank Airport in California. Flight 1496 was en route to Las Vegas Friday morning around noon when it sharply descended 475 feet after its collision warning system saw another aircraft in the vicinity, forcing the pilot to make a rapid maneuver.
The aircraft were responding to automated warnings of a potential collision, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said. Inside the cabin, the sharp descent was chaotic. Passengers said they were thrown out of their seats, and two flight attendants were injured in the sudden maneuver.
The pilot responded to "two air "alerts"—first to climb and then to descend, Southwest Airlines said in a statement. "The flight landed without incident in Las Vegas," the airline said, stating that the crew handled all required safety protocols and is now cooperating fully with the FAA's investigation.
One of the passengers, comedian Jimmy Dore, posted his account on social media. "I and lmany other people flew out of our chairs and into the ceiling," he wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter). "A flight attendant required medical assistance. The pilot told the control tower that he had to take evasive action to avoid a plane," he added, referring to a collision warning he said has sounded.
Data from aerial video tracking from Flightradar captured the abrupt change of course in altitude. But Hollywood Burbank Airport officials said the incident did not occur in their controlled airspace. Control tower and ground personnel did not notice anything out of the ordinary when the plane was taking off, said airport spokesman Mike Christensen.
The other aircraft, according to the FA, was a Hawker Hunter jet headed to Huntingburg, Ind., while on its descent at an altitude of 14,653 feet. Officials are now trying to determine how close the two planes came to each other and whether any standard procedures were violated.
While the flight continued uneventfully and landed safely in Las Vegas, the incident reflects increasing fears about the safety of air travel in the U.S. The incident comes just weeks after a fatal mid-air collision near Washington, DC in January that killed 67 people and renewed focus on air traffic control.
The FAA said the public will have the opportunity to fully review it. In the meantime, passengers are thankful for the pilot's quick thinking, which probably prevented a more catastrophic tragedy.
