A Southwest flight climbing away from Burbank Airport suddenly descended hundreds of feet Friday afternoon, possibly to avoid a mid-air collision.
The plane was at 14,100 feet above Angeles National Forest headed northeast to Las Vegas at 12:03 p.m. when it abruptly dropped to 13,625 feet, data from Flightradar24 showed.
The drop of around 500 feet moments after the plane had been gaining altitude steadily since takeoff, causing tense moments on the plane. Passengers said on social media that they were startled by the move.
Few details were immediately available Friday afternoon about exactly what prompted the pilot to make the emergency maneuver, though the posts claimed the pilot announced that the change in course was necessary to avoid a collision.
The commercial flight had to climb and descend to comply with two onboard traffic alerts, Southwest spokesperson Lynn Lunsford said in a statement to The Times.
“The flight continued to Las Vegas, where it landed uneventfully,” the statement said. “Southwest is engaged with the Federal Aviation Administration to further understand the circumstances.”
“No injuries were immediately reported by Customers, but two Flight Attendants are being treated for injuries,” Lunsford said.
The Federal Aviation Administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the reports.
A military jet was headed southwest to Naval Base Ventura County in Point Mugu and was at similar altitude — at 14,525 feet when the Southwest flight dropped, per Flightradar24.
The planes were around 5 miles apart and within 400 vertical feet of one another headed in opposite directions when the Southwest flight took evasive action, flight data on the website showed. The fighter jet stopped its own steady descent and maintained its height for several minutes after the incident.
The plane landed in Las Vegas at 12:39 p.m. Friday.
There has been growing focus on aviation safety in recent months.
A series of radar outages at Newark Liberty International airport brought massive flight delays in May. Federal officials continue to investigate the January collision in Washington between a commercial jet and a military helicopter that killed 67 people.
In San Diego, a private jet crashed, and killing all six on board in June. A federal investigation found the aircraft was flying too low before it hit power lines and slammed into a house.
The automated system that provides weather conditions and runway lights weren’t operating at the airport before the plane crashed, the report confirmed.
This is a developing story and will be updated.