A Southwest Airlines flight dropped several hundred feet in a matter of seconds to avoid a midair collision, after the Federal Aviation Administration said pilots were alerted to another aircraft's presence in the area.

What felt like a free‑fall for passengers on Southwest Flight 1496 may prompt serious questions about air safety and how close is too close?

The Southwest Boeing 737 departed just before noon local time on Friday for a scheduled flight to Las Vegas. Six minutes after takeoff, a privately owned Hawker Hunter fighter jet crossed less than two miles in front of the Southwest plane, passing within a few hundred feet of the same altitude, according to flight tracking site Flightradar24.

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 aboard Southwest flight 1496 from California to Nevada experienced a frightening few seconds when the aircraft took a sudden nosedive to avoid a midair collision.