Southwest Flight Takes Sudden Plunge to Avoid Midair Collision; 2 Flight Attendants Injured

The descent led the Boeing 737 to drop approximately 300 feet in just 36 seconds, as confirmed by data from flight tracking site FlightAware.

Rudy Blalock

Published: 7/25/2025, 10:34:22 PM EDT

Southwest Flight Takes Sudden Plunge to Avoid Midair Collision; 2 Flight Attendants Injured — A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 airplane prepares to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Va., on July 10, 2025. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

A routine Southwest Airlines flight departing from Southern California made a sudden and steep descent minutes after takeoff while en route to Las Vegas, to evade a nearby plane. The move injured two flight attendants.

The incident involved Southwest Flight 1496, which left Hollywood Burbank Airport around 11 a.m. local time, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The airline later confirmed that the crew responded to two air alerts requiring the pilot to climb and then descend. The descent, prompted by automated alerts about another aircraft in close proximity, led the Boeing 737 to drop approximately 300 feet in just 36 seconds, as confirmed by data from flight tracking site FlightAware.

Passengers recalled the chaos inside the cabin as the unexpected dive unfolded.

The plane suddenly jolted shortly after takeoff then felt like it was falling, said Stef Zamorano, who was flying to Las Vegas with her husband to celebrate his birthday.

In front of her, Zamorano saw a woman who wasn’t wearing her seat belt shoot up and out of her seat, her long hair flying in a tangled mess. The man seated next to her was clutching her arm, and she said the woman across the aisle was panicking.

“She was pretty much verbalizing how we all felt, saying, ‘I want to get off this plane. I want to be on the ground,’” Zamorano said.

Still in shock, Zamorano said she could hardly make out what the pilot was saying when he later addressed the passengers.

Another passenger, stand-up comedian Jimmy Dore, who was among those on board, wrote on X, “Pilot said his collision warning went off & he needed to avoid plane coming at us.” Describing the immediate aftermath, Dore added, “Myself & Plenty of people flew out of their seats & bumped heads on ceiling, a flight attendant needed medical attention.”

The FAA stated that the incident occurred when the jet was responding to an onboard alert about another nearby aircraft. According to FlightAware, the Southwest flight and a Hawker Hunter Mk. 58—a British fighter plane owned by Hawker Hunter Aviation Ltd—were operating in the same airspace just after noon. Federal authorities have launched an investigation into the incident.

Following the incident, Southwest Airlines stated that the flight continued to Las Vegas, “where it landed uneventfully.” The airline also said it is working with the FAA “to further understand the circumstances” surrounding the alert and quick descent.

Mike Christensen, a spokesperson for Hollywood Burbank Airport, said that neither the airport’s control tower nor operations department recorded the Southwest flight making such a plunge in their monitored airspace.

Representatives for Hawker Hunter Aviation Ltd did not immediately respond to requests for comment from NTD regarding the incident.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, as of July 25, there have been 129 fatal plane crashes and 547 non-fatal crashes in 2025 so far, but these numbers continue to reflect a global downward trend in fatal airline accidents since 2019.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.