Jet drops 500 feet to avoid mid-air collision, flyer says 'tower of terror ride'

Passengers on Southwest Flight 1496, travelling from Burbank, California to Las Vegas, Nevada, on Friday experienced a sudden and steep descent shortly after takeoff when the aircraft took evasive action to avoid a potential mid-air collision, according to passengers and airline officials.

One passenger, Caitlin Burdi, described the incident as alarming, as per Fox News report. “About 10 minutes into the flight, we plummeted pretty far...Then, within two seconds, it felt like the Tower of Terror ride. We fell 20 to 30 feet in the air,” she said. “The screaming, it was terrifying. We really thought we were heading into a crash.”

Burdi added that the pilot later addressed passengers, saying the aircraft had narrowly avoided a collision with another plane and had to make an emergency descent due to a temporary loss of contact with air traffic control.

"It was absolutely terrifying," Burdi said in an on-camera interview. "I just remember him saying, ‘What just happened was we almost collided with another plane, and I had to make the emergency attempt to go under because we lost service with the air traffic controller.’"

Two flight attendants were injured during the incident and are currently receiving medical care. No passenger injuries were officially reported.

Southwest Flight 1496, bound for Las Vegas, briefly descended by nearly 500 feet, according to a Reuters report. The aircraft later continued its journey and landed without further incident.

This marks the second such incident involving a US commercial aircraft within a week and appears to be the fourth case involving military aircraft since March.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the airline, the crew received cockpit alerts warning of nearby traffic in close proximity. In response, the pilots performed vertical manoeuvres, both climbing and descending, to avoid potential conflict.

The other aircraft involved was identified by flight tracking service Flightradar24 as a Hawker Hunter, a British-built fighter jet. The two planes came within 4.86 miles laterally and 350 feet vertically of each other.

The FAA has launched an investigation. The US Air Force and Department of Defence have not commented on the presence of the military aircraft near Hollywood Burbank Airport.

According to a statement from Southwest Airlines, the crew responded to “two onboard traffic alerts” during takeoff, which required immediate changes in altitude in compliance with standard collision-avoidance protocols.

Earlier, on July 18, a SkyWest Airlines jet operating as a Delta Connection flight from Minneapolis reported a near miss with a US Air Force B-52 bomber during approach to Minot Airport in North Dakota. The SkyWest flight landed safely and the FAA is currently investigating the incident.

The Air Force stated that the B-52 crew had been in communication with local air traffic control during a ceremonial flyover for the North Dakota State Fair, but that tower personnel did not inform them of the incoming commercial aircraft.

Notably, the Minot control tower is operated by a private contractor, not the FAA.

In a separate incident under investigation, on March 28, a Delta Airbus A319 and four Air Force T-38 jets came into close proximity near Reagan Washington Airport. The military aircraft were en route to perform a ceremonial flyover at Arlington Cemetery.

The focus on airspace coordination between civilian and military aircraft has increased since January 29, when an Army helicopter collided with an American Airlines regional jet near Reagan Airport, resulting in 67 fatalities.

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