Air France Jet Turns Toward American Airlines Plane After Takeoff At LAX—Controller Warns ‘Traffic 12 O’Clock’

An Air France Airbus A350 turned left toward an American Airlines jet after takeoff from LAX early Saturday morning, requiring urgent intervention. The controller ordered Air France to turn immediately, and told American to return to 2,000 feet. He warned: “Traffic twelve o’clock. Less than a mile.” The incident is strikingly similar to another close call at the same airport almost exactly a year earlier. Air France Turned Toward The American Plane Both flights took off around 12:15 a.m. on November 7: Air France flight 28, an Airbus A350-900 registered F-HUVK, was departing runway 24L for Papeete, Tahiti. American Airlines flight 1660, an Airbus A321 registered N191UW, was departing runway 25R for Dallas–Fort Worth. These are parallel runways on opposite sides of the airport. Air France was supposed to head west over the ocean, but it began turning left – toward the departure path from the southern runway complex. Controller audio and flight tracking replay “Air France zero two eight heavy. Fly heading of two seven zero immediately.” That means turn west, to a compass heading of 270 degrees. Here’s the warning to American: “Traffic twelve o’clock. Less than a mile. Maintain two thousand.” American had already climbed above the altitude the controller wanted it to hold. The controller had to turn Air France away while bringing American back down to 2,000 feet. The FAA departure instructions in effect that day direct aircraft leaving runway 24L to begin on a heading of 251 degrees, proceed DLREY followed by ENNEY. The route continues broadly west. The Air France A350 shouldn’t have made an early left turn into the other departure stream. The controller had told Air France to “climb via” its assigned departure. That means following the published route and its altitude restrictions. He challenged the crew about turning to a heading, and repeatedly asked which departure they’d been instructed to fly. “Air France zero two eight heavy. Thank you very much. Possible pilot deviation. I have a number for you to call when you’re ready.” Air France flew a turn that didn’t match its assigned departure, and it’s not clear yet what happened: a wrong route loaded into the flight computer? a manually selected heading? a misunderstanding in the cockpit? How Close Was This? Simple Flying emphasizes 400 feet of vertical separation. But there was nearly a mile between the two planes. This was serious. Two departing aircraft had converging paths, the controller issued a traffic alert, and ordered an immediate turn while restricting the other aircraft’s altitude. But they didn’t come within 400 feet of colliding. I haven’t seen it reported that there was a collision avoidance resolution advisory. The departure route wasn’t followed, and the cockpit checksprevent the deviation from developing into a traffic conflict. The controller saw the conflict, issued instructions to prevent a problem, and both crews followed those instructions. Almost The Same Thing Happened Last Year On October 31, 2025, an ITA Airways Airbus A330neo departing Los Angeles for Rome turned left toward an American Airlines Airbus A321 bound for New York. It was the same pair of runways with ITA departing 24L, and American departing 25R. The controller ordered ITA right to heading 270 and told American to stop its climb at 1,500 feet. ITA’s crew also received a possible pilot deviation notification. There was also the December 2025 Houston encounter between Volaris El Salvador and a United Express regional jet. In that case, the Volaris crew read back a left turn correctly but turned right, toward the other departure. The United Express crew reported a collision avoidance advisory. Topics on this page