The incident occurred about six minutes after Southwest flight 1496 took off from Hollywood Burbank Airport in Los Angeles County.

Passengers on Southwest Flight 1496 to Las Vegas experienced a terrifying nosedive when the pilot took action to avoid a midair collision, causing injuries as people hit the ceiling.

A person on the flight said it “dove aggressively” and that people flew out of their seats. The flight landed safely at its destination, Las Vegas.

A Southwest flight out of Burbank rapidly descended 475 feet to avoid another plane on Friday, according to flight tracking data and passengers on the plane.

The passenger jet was responding to an alert of another aircraft in the vicinity, federal authorities said. A Cold War-era military plane was nearby at the time.

Passengers onboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Burbank to Las Vegas said their pilot "aggressively" dived to avoid a midair collision.

The sudden maneuver was made during a Friday flight out of California after two collision safety alerts sounded in the cockpit, causing the pilots to take evasive action, the airline said.

Two flight attendants on a Southwest Airlines Co. jet were injured Friday after the pilot had to maneuver sharply in response to alerts that another aircraft was in the vicinity.

Big Names Fall Off the Cliff. Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) is one of the worst-performing stocks on Thursday. Southwest Airlines snapped a four-day winning streak on Thursday, slashing 11.16 percent to close at $33.

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.