A Southwest Airlines plane bound for Las Vegas from Southern California suddenly crashed shortly after takeoff while responding to an alert about a nearby aircraft, causing several passengers to be ejected and injuring two flight attendants.
The plane suddenly shook shortly after takeoff on Friday and felt like it was going down, said Steph Zamorano, who was flying to Las Vegas with her husband to celebrate his birthday.
Ms. Zamorano said she saw a woman in front of her, “who was not wearing a seat belt,” suddenly jump up and fly out of her seat.
The man sitting next to her grabbed her arm, and the woman sitting across the aisle admitted she panicked.
“She literally said what we all felt when she said, 'I want to get off this plane. I want to be on the ground,'” Ms. Zamorano told The Associated Press.
The plane descended about 300 feet (91.44 meters) in 36 seconds, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Southwest Flight 1496 responded to a nearby warning from another aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.
According to Southwest, the crew responded to two alarms requiring the pilot to climb and then descend.
The flight took off from Hollywood Burbank Airport shortly before noon.
Ms Zamorano, still in shock, said she could barely make out what the pilot was saying when he later addressed the passengers.
Another passenger, comedian Jimmy Dore, wrote in X that the pilot mentioned a close encounter.
“The pilot said the forward collision warning system was activated and he needed to avoid the aircraft coming towards us,” Dor wrote.
According to FlightAware data, the aircraft was in the same airspace near Burbank as a Hawker Hunter Mk 58 just after midday local time. The Hawker Hunter is a British fighter jet.
The documents show it belongs to the British defense company Hawker Hunter Aviation. The company has not yet responded to requests for comment on the incident.
Mike Christensen, a spokesman for Hollywood Burbank Airport, said neither the control tower nor the operations department that tracks departures and arrivals had any record of the Southwest flight descending in their airspace.
Southwest said the flight continued to Las Vegas “where it landed without incident.”
The airline said it was cooperating with the FAA “to further investigate the circumstances” of the incident.
The near miss is the latest incident to raise questions about aviation safety since January's mid-air collision over Washington, D.C., killed 67 people.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
