US airplane plummets hundreds of feet to avoid British fighter jet, injuring two

They were sharing the same airspace in California

The passenger plane was on its way to Las Vegas from Hollywood Burbank Airport in Southern California at the time, when the pilot was forced to plummet 300 feet in less than 36 seconds to avoid calamity.

Travellers were thrown out of their seats and two flight attendants suffered injuries as the desperate manoeuvre was carried out.

Stand-up comedian Jimmy Dore was one of the passengers on the plane, and spoke of his experience in a post on X, saying that the erratic move was due to a near-miss with another plane.

Dore wrote on X: "Pilot said his collision warning went off & he needed to avoid plane coming at us. Wow.

"A flight attendant needed medical attention."

His colleague Stef Zamorano added that all the passengers applauded when the plane landed.

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.

She also added that the pilot later explained that the aircraft had almost hit another plane, and that they had lost contact with air traffic control.

Burdi 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.'"

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revealed that the flight, Southwest 1496, was responding to an onboard alert regarding another craft in its vicinity.

It was sharing the same airspace as a Hawker Hunter Mk. 58, a British fighter jet owned by British defence contracting firm Hawker Hunter Aviation.

Still shaken to the core, Zamorano recalled struggling to make out what the pilot was saying when he later addressed everyone onboard.

Meanwhile, Hollywood Burbank Airport spokesperson Mike Christensen went on to claim that neither the control tower nor the operations department have any record of the flight making a dive.

Southwest said in a statement that the crew "responded to two onboard traffic alerts... requiring them to climb and descend to comply with the alerts".

The airline is now working with the FAA "to further understand the circumstances" of the event.