Las Vegas: A Southwest Airlines flight from Hollywood Burbank Airport to Las Vegas made a sudden and alarming altitude drop shortly after takeoff, in what passengers and reports described as a near-miss with another aircraft.
Flight 1496, which departed from the Los Angeles area, experienced a rapid change in elevation just minutes into the journey. The abrupt maneuver caused passengers to be lifted out of their seats and left two flight attendants injured.
According to Southwest Airlines, the crew responded to two onboard traffic collision alerts, requiring immediate climb and descent actions to avoid a potential mid-air collision. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has opened an investigation into the incident, stating that ensuring airspace safety remains its ‘top priority.’
FAA Statement
This information is preliminary and subject to change.
Southwest Airlines Flight 1496 responded to an onboard alert that another aircraft was in the vicinity while in Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center airspace. The FAA is investigating the event that…— The FAA ✈️ (@FAANews) July 25, 2025
Among the passengers was stand-up comedian Jimmy Dore, who wrote on the social media platform X that the pilot had informed them of a collision warning triggered by another plane headed toward them. “Pilot said that his collision warning went off and he needed to avoid a plane coming at us. Wow,” Dore posted. His colleague Stef Zamorano noted that passengers applauded upon landing in Las Vegas.
Citing flight tracking data, the report says that the aircraft had been nearly intercepted by a privately owned Hawker Hunter fighter jet just six minutes after takeoff.
The jet, which had departed from El Paso, Texas, was enroute to Oxnard, California, and passed less than two miles in front of the Southwest plane and within a few hundred feet of its altitude.
The Southwest statement said that the flight continued on to Las Vegas, “where it landed uneventfully,” and that the airline is ‘engaged’ with the FAA “to further understand the circumstances.”
“We appreciate the professionalism of our Flight Crew and Flight Attendants in responding to this event. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Customers and Employees,” the Airlines’ statement added.
This marks the second such near-collision incident in a week, following a Delta regional flight from Minneapolis that had to execute an evasive maneuver to avoid a US military bomber.
MOST READ | Starlink suffers rare global outage; Musk issues apology
