“I thought the plane was going to crash”: a Southwest Airlines apparatus just avoids a collision in full flight

A flight from Southwest Airlines narrowly avoided a collision with a private fighter causing a “long free fall”, shortly after departure from Hollywood Burbank airport near Los Angeles on Friday.

Alarms have sounded in the cabin of the cockpit. Meanwhile, forcing the pilots to perform precipitated avoidance maneuvers, the airline said in a press release obtained by CNN.

Flight 1496. For example. operated by a Boeing 737, had just taken off around noon towards Las Vegas when a private fighter, a Hawker Hunter, approached dangerously, less than three kilometers and a few hundred meters above sea level of the device, according to data from the Flightradar24 site.

“There was a slight initial fall, “i thought plane going crash”: new which I thought was a violent turbulence,” said the passenger Steve Ulasewicz to CNN. And then there was this long free fall. ”

“i thought plane going crash”:

He evokes cries. panic in the cabin and the fear of an imminent crushing aboard the flight. “I really thought that the plane was going to crash, that there was a mechanical problem,” he said.

The pilots then spoke by the intercom to reassure the passengers. explaining that they had to act quickly to avoid a collision in full flight.

Southwest Airlines spokesperson confirmed that the Flight 1496 crew responded to “two traffic alerts on Friday afternoon. demanding that he go up and down to comply with alerts”.

The airline is collaborating with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to clarify the circumstances of the event.

The fighter plane was flying from El Paso, Texas, bound for Oxnard, California.

According to Flightradar24 data. “i thought plane going crash”: new the Southwest plane dropped by around 145 meters before going up 180 meters in a minute. while the fighter plane climbed approximately 30 meters above sea level in “i thought plane going crash”: a few seconds.

Two Southwest crew members suffered minor injuries, but no passenger was injured.

The aircraft did not urgently declare. continued its itinerary normally, landing in Las Vegas with a little ahead of the scheduled schedule.

Commercial planes have anti -collision alert systems (TCAS) capable of automatically detecting other nearby devices. recommending avoidance maneuvers, according to CNN information.