After departing from the Los Angeles area on Friday, a Southwest Airlines plane dropped rapidly, with passengers posting online that pilots were forced to quickly change courses to avoid potential collisions with another aircraft.
Flight 1496 from Hollywood Burbank Airport to Las Vegas quickly dropped, evacuating passengers from their seats and injuring two flight attendants.
“The crew responded to two on-board traffic alerts … asked them to climb and descend to comply with the alerts,” Southwest said in a statement.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was investigating the “incident”. Less than a week after similar near-missing.
“Ensure the safety of everyone in the national airspace system remains our priority,” the FAA statement added.
The standing comedian Jimmy Dore was on the plane, one of the passengers, saying the unstable move was due to the nearly failure of another plane.
“The pilot said his collision warning was out and he needed to avoid the plane heading towards us. Wow,” Dole wrote on X. A flight attendant needs medical care. ”
His colleague Stef Zamorano added that all passengers applauded when the plane landed.
Caitlin Burdi told Fox News Passengers are “screaming” when the plane drops quickly.
“It’s really scary. We really thought we were in a plane crash,” she said.
She added that the pilot then crossed the speaker and said the plane had almost hit another plane and they had lost contact with the air traffic control.
“I just remember what he said was, ‘What happened was that we almost collided with another plane and I had to try to get into trouble because we lost the service of the air traffic controller.’
according to CNNLess than six minutes later in the air, the plane was almost intercepted by a privately owned Hawk Hunter fighter.
CNN reported that the jet was less than two miles ahead of it and within a few hundred feet of its height, citing flight tracking data. It has set off from El Pas, Texas, to Oxnard, California.
The Southwest statement said the flight continued to Las Vegas, “its location was not obviously landing” and the airline was “engaged” to the FAA to learn more about the situation.
“We thank our pilots and flight attendants for their professionalism in responding to this event. There is nothing more important to the Southwest than the safety of our customers and staff.”
Less than a week after a Delta flight from Minneapolis, it was forced to perform a sudden evasion operation to avoid U.S. military bombers.
Health & Wellness Contributor
A wellness enthusiast and certified nutrition advisor, Meera covers everything from healthy living tips to medical breakthroughs. Her articles aim to inform and inspire readers to live better every day.
