Southwest passengers sent flying into ceiling during terrifying emergency nosedive maneuver

Passengers aboard Southwest flight 1496 from Burbank to Las Vegas experienced a frightening few seconds when the aircraft took a sudden nosedive to avoid a midair collision shortly after takeoff.

The dramatic maneuver caused passengers to fly up out of their seats and into the ceiling as children and adults screamed, fearing the worst.

Passengers reported at least one flight attendant was injured, though the airline has not yet confirmed any details about the incident.

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Caitlin Burdi, who was on flight 1496 to Vegas, told Fox News Digital she had been on the same flight path before, so she knew the extreme turbulence was abnormal.

“About 10 minutes into the flight, we plummeted pretty far, and I looked around, and everyone was like, ‘OK, that’s normal’,” Burdi said. “Then, within two seconds, it felt like the ride Tower of Terror, where we fell 20 to 30 feet in the air. The screaming, it was terrifying. We really thought we were plummeting to a plane crash.”

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One flight attendant was dazed after hitting her head, passengers said. Another flight attendant announced he was quitting.

Following the dramatic drop, the pilot came on the intercom and said the plane almost collided with another plane, and they had lost air traffic control signal.

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“It was absolutely terrifying,” 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.’”

Other passengers on the fearful flight took to social media to share their experience.

“Myself & Plenty of people flew out of their seats & bumped heads on ceiling, a flight attendant needed medical attention,” stand-up comedian Jimmy Dore wrote in an X post. “Pilot said his collision warning went off & he needed to avoid plane coming at us. Wow.”

Southwest Airlines did not immediately respond to further inquiries from Fox News Digital.