(Los Angeles) A airliner of the American company Southwest Airlines suddenly had to dive several tens of meters at altitude on Friday to avoid a collision with another device, injuring two crew members and terrorizing the passengers.
“I myself and many people have been ejected from their seats and hit the ceiling with our head,” said humorist Jimmy Dore, who was on this flight between Burbank and Las Vegas, in the west of the country.
“The pilot said that his collision warning had triggered and that he should avoid an airplane that came straight to us,” he added.
The American aviation regulator (FAA) said that he “investigates the event”.
The flight 1496 of Southwest Airlines “reacted to an on -board alert indicating that another plane was in the vicinity,” confirmed the Federal Agency.
For its part, the airline explained that the plane “reacted to two traffic alerts on board Friday afternoon during the initial climb from Burbank, California, forcing them to go up and down to comply with the alerts. »»
“The flight continued towards Las Vegas, where he landed without incident,” continued Southwest.
Two crew members had to be treated for injuries, added the company, adding that all passengers were unharmed.
The airliner was in the same airspace near Burbank as a fighter plane Hawker Hunter MK. 58, according to the Flightaware flight tracking site.
This incident is strengthening questions about air security in the United States, after a series of accidents in recent months.
In January, a collision in flight between an airliner approaching at Ronald-Reagan airport, close to the center of Washington, and a military helicopter had killed 67 people.
The administration of the American president Donald Trump announced in early May a “complete modernization” of the American air traffic control system which suffers from a shortage of controllers in the towers managed by the FAA.
The government has also dismissed hundreds of FAA employees, as part of its project to reduce the enrollment of the federal state.
