Passengers aboard a Southwest Airlines jet experienced a harrowing situation when their flight, Southwest 1496, made a dramatic descent to avoid colliding with another aircraft. The Boeing 737, which had departed from Hollywood Burbank Airport just before noon, dropped hundreds of feet within a span of over 30 seconds, alarming the passengers on board.
Caitlin Burdi, one of the passengers, recounted the terrifying moments during the flight. She described a brief plunge followed by a more severe drop, causing chaos as passengers screamed in fear. "We really thought we were plummeting to a plane crash," Burdi stated in an interview with Fox News Digital at the Las Vegas airport. The pilot informed the passengers that the aircraft had nearly collided with another plane.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed that the Southwest flight was responding to an onboard alert indicating the presence of another aircraft in its vicinity. An investigation is currently underway regarding this incident. Southwest Airlines reported that the flight crew reacted to two alerts that prompted the pilot to climb and then descend rapidly. Fortunately, the aircraft landed safely in Las Vegas after the alarming incident.
Comedian Stef Zamorano, also a passenger on the flight, shared her observations during the descent. She witnessed a woman who was not wearing her seatbelt being thrown out of her seat and noted that a man next to her was clutching the woman’s arm in fear. Zamorano described the anxiety on board, with passengers expressing their distress. One woman was vocally panicking, stating, “I want to get off this plane. I want to be on the ground!”
Flight tracking data from FlightAware indicated that the Southwest jet was sharing airspace with a Hawker Hunter Mk. 58, owned by Hawker Hunter Aviation, a British defense contracting company. However, the company did not respond to requests for comments regarding the incident.
Despite the close call, Southwest Airlines maintained that the flight continued without further issues and landed “uneventfully” in Las Vegas. The airline expressed its commitment to cooperating with the FAA to better understand the circumstances surrounding the incident.
This alarming event adds to ongoing concerns regarding aviation safety, particularly in light of a separate midair collision that occurred in January over Washington, D.C., resulting in the tragic loss of 67 lives. Such incidents have heightened scrutiny and sparked discussions about the protocols in place to ensure the safety of passengers and aircraft in shared airspace.
