Crew injured as US passenger plane dives to avoid 'midair collision' with fighter jet

Two flight attendants have been injured after a Southwest Airlines plane rapidly dropped about 475 feet in elevation shortly after take-off from Hollywood Burbank airport near Los Angeles on Friday. Passengers wrote on social media that the plane quickly changed course to avoid collision with another aircraft.

After less than six minutes in the air, a privately-owned Hawker Hunter fighter jet crossed less than two miles in front of the passenger jet within a few hundred feet of its altitude, according to CNN.

When alarms sounded, the Southwest plane dropped about 475 feet and then ascended about 600 feet over the course of about a minute, CNN reported, citing flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.

The fighter jet ascended about 100 feet in just a few seconds.

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Comedian Jimmy Dore, who was on board the flight, wrote on X: "Pilot had to dive aggressively to avoid midair collision over Burbank airport."

"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."

Caitlin Burdi told Fox News that passengers were "screaming" as the plane rapidly fell.

"It was terrifying. We really thought we were plummeting to a plane crash," she said.

"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,'" she said.

She added that the pilot came over the speaker afterwards to say that the plane had almost hit another plane, and that they had lost contact with air traffic control.

Southwest Airlines said in a statement that the crew of Flight 1496 "responded to two onboard traffic alerts" while climbing out of Burbank, California, "requiring them to climb and descend to comply with the alerts."

Southwest Airlines said the flight "continued to Las Vegas" following the incident, "where it landed uneventfully."

Southwest said no passengers reported injuries, but two flight attendants were being treated for injuries.

The Federal Aviation Agency said it was investigating the incident.