Southwest flight abruptly descends to keep away from ‘mid-air collision’ with one other airplane close to Burbank airport

BURBANK, Calif. (KABC) — Passengers aboard a Southwest flight out of Burbank described scary moments when the airplane quickly descended shortly after takeoff to keep away from a mid-air collision Friday.

About six minutes after Southwest flight 1496 took off from Hollywood Burbank Airport headed to Las Vegas, it abruptly descended 475 ft – from 14,100 ft to 13,625 ft, in accordance with flightRadar24.

An Eyewitness Information viewer from Woodland Hills who was on that flight reached out to ABC7 as quickly because the airplane landed safely in Vegas. He mentioned the pilot informed him there was a collision avoidance alert and that is what prompted the drop.

The opposite airplane, a Hawker Hunter with the N quantity N335AX, was at an altitude of roughly 14,653 ft when the Southwest flight started to descend.

When a airplane’s collision avoidance system detects a doable collision, the airplane will both go down or up and the opposite airplane will do the alternative. Preliminary knowledge reveals the planes have been a number of miles aside when the pilots acquired their alerts.

Steve Ulasewicz, one other passenger on the flight, mentioned that they skilled what felt like a “important drop.” He informed ABC Information the pilot introduced that they’d carried out the maneuver to “keep away from a mid-air collision.”

“There was about, I’d say, eight-second, 8 to 10-second drop of free fall,” Ulasewicz mentioned. “By no means skilled that. Everyone within the airplane began screaming. Positively felt like that was it. Like that is how I’ll exit.

The passenger additionally mentioned a flight attendant was injured and met by medical personnel as soon as the airplane arrived in Las Vegas.

Southwest Airways launched a press release on Flight 1496 that mentioned, partially:

“Southwest is engaged with the Federal Aviation Administration to additional perceive the circumstances. No accidents have been instantly reported by Clients, however two Flight Attendants are being handled for accidents. We respect the professionalism of our Flight Crew and Flight Attendants in responding to this occasion. Nothing is extra essential to Southwest than the Security of our Clients and Staff.”

The FAA is investigating.

This can be a growing story. Please examine again for updates.

ABC Information contributed to this story.