SouthWest Airlines flight 1496, bound for Las Vegas, avoided a mid-air collision over the Burbank airport earlier today. This led to a sudden drop in altitude as the aircraft nosedived shortly after take-off. Following this, eyewitnesses recounted the horror and chaos aboard the flight.

Comedian Jimmy Dore, aboard the dramatic flight, shared his experience on X (formerly Twitter), “myself and plenty of people flew out of their seats and bumped heads on the ceiling”. Dore described that the pilot had to “dive aggressively to avoid mid-air collision”. He added, “Pilot said his collision warning went off & he needed to avoid the plane coming at us. Wow.”

SouthWest flight nosedives: Eyewitnesses report

Other passengers aboard the SW 1496 shared their accounts with Fox News, stating that the turbulence was not normal. “We fell 20-30 feet in the air…we thought we were plummeting to a plane crash,” said the passenger.

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Media reports reveal that the other plane, with which the crash was avoided, was a Hawker Hunter with N number. N335AX was at an altitude of approximately 14,653 feet when the Southwest flight descended rapidly. A video from FlightRadar made its rounds on social media, which showed SW 1496 dropping altitude to avoid the path of the Hawker.

After the dramatic turn of events, the SouthWest aircraft “landed uneventfully” in Las Vegas as per ABC news. The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) investigation is under, and the airline is working with them to “understand the circumstances” of the near-miss event.

What happened mid-air?

Southwest flight 1496 took off from the Hollywood Burbank Airport just before noon. Shortly after take-off, the pilots responded to an onboard alert about another aircraft in its vicinity, said the FAA. The crew then immediately reacted to two air alerts that directed the pilot to first climb and then descend, according to a statement from Southwest.