Southwest Airlines, Las Vegas and flight 1496
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What felt like a free‑fall for passengers on Southwest Flight 1496 may prompt serious questions about air safety and how close is too close?
A Southwest Airlines flight from Burbank made an emergency descent of 475 feet to avoid colliding with another aircraft before safely landing in Las Vegas on Friday.
Passengers aboard Southwest flight 1496 from California to Nevada experienced a frightening few seconds when the aircraft took a sudden nosedive to avoid a midair collision.
After departing from Burbank, traffic alerts required a Southwest Airlines flight crew on a Las Vegas-bound plane to "climb and descend to comply with the alerts," according to an airline representative.