Southwest flight goes into free fall to avoid Cold War-era fighter jet
For a second time this week, a commercial airline pilot had to make an aggressive maneuver to avoid a mid-air collision with another plane.
This time, a Southwest flight taking off from Hollywood Burbank Airport and destined for Las Vegas on Friday afternoon plunged nearly 500 feet to avoid a fighter jet at more than 14,000 feet in the air, according to flight data.
Jet crosses in front of commercial airliner
Southwest Flight 1496, a Boeing 737, was avoiding a Hawker Hunter, a type of military-style jet from the early Cold War era, flying at an altitude of 14,653 feet, according to Flightradar24. The jet crossed right in front of the Southwest plane, less than two miles away, and just a few hundred feet apart in altitude.
The Southwest pilot abruptly descended 475 feet to avoid hitting the Hawker Hunter. Both planes were several miles apart when their collision avoidance systems triggered alerts, designed to prevent mid-air collisions.
Passengers describe harrowing experience
Comedian Jimmy Dore posted to X, saying he was a passenger on Southwest Flight 1496. He wrote:
“Myself & plenty of people flew out of their seats & bumped heads on ceiling, a flight attendant needed medical attention. Pilot said his collision warning went off & he needed to avoid plane coming at us. Wow.”
Passenger Steve Ulasewicz told CNN: “There was a small initial drop that I thought was just like really bad turbulence. And then after that, there was this long free fall.”
Crew injured during incident
The New York Times confirmed two crew members were injured.
“The crew of Southwest Flight 1496 responded to two onboard traffic alerts Friday afternoon… requiring them to climb and descend to comply with the alerts,” Lynn Lunsford, Southwest spokesman, said in a statement reported by CNN.
“Southwest is engaged with the Federal Aviation Administration to further understand the circumstances.”
The flight landed safely at 12:40 p.m. local time.
Recent pattern of close calls
The incident comes less than a week after a SkyWest jet landing in North Dakota on Saturday, July 19, had to abort its approach to avoid a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber in its path. The airline said it’s investigating.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
