Southwest Airlines abruptly drops to avoid mid-air crash with another plane over Burbank

BURBANK, Calif. (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - Scary moment in the air on a Southwest Airlines flight from Burbank to Las Vegas as the plane went into what passengers say felt like a freefall.

One passenger, Steve Ulasewicz, described it on the phone to an NBC affiliate in Los Angeles.

"Eight minutes into the flight, felt a significant drop for about like two seconds so I thought it was just bad turbulence. Like three seconds after that the plane was in a free fall. I wanna say like eight to ten seconds and people were screaming. You know it was pandemonium people thought the plane was going down. It was pretty wild," Ulasewicz shared.

The FAA says Southwest Airlines was responding to two onboard alerts that another aircraft was in the vicinity and that Flight 1496 needed to "climb and descend."

A source familiar with the situation said the other plane was a single seat fighter jet, a Hawker-Hunter MK 58, registered to a company.

The plane continued its flight to Las Vegas where two flight attendants were treated for injuries.