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.

Alarms sounded in the cockpit of a Southwest Airlines jet shortly after taking off from Hollywood Burbank airport near Los Angeles on Friday, prompting evasive maneuvers, the airline said in a statement.

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.

A Southwest Airline jet heading to Las Vegas from Southern California took a dramatic plunge shortly after takeoff Friday in response to an alert about a nearby plane, injuring two flight attendants,

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.