Confused Air France Pilots Make Wrong Turn After Takeoff From LAX, Leading To Close Call

An Air France Airbus A350 departing from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) made a wrong turn after takeoff, sending the plane dangerously close to the path of an American Airlines Airbus A321. The way the pilots responded to this isn’t exactly great, though one thing is for sure — there seems to be a recurring problem involving runway 24L departures from the airport, whatever the cause may be. Air France A350 pilots mess up LAX departureLAX runway 24L departures are a consistent issueBottom line Air France A350 pilots mess up LAX departure YouTube channel You can see ATC has the audio and a visualization of an incident that happened shortly after 12AM on Saturday, November 7, 2026. It involves Air France flight AF28, which was operating to Papeete, French Polynesia (PPT). LAX has four parallel runways, and the Air France A350 was cleared for takeoff on runway 24L, on the north side of the field. The Air France pilots were instructed to initially fly to the DLREY fix, instructions which they correctly read back. Once through the DLREY fix, they were instructed to climb via their assigned SID (that they had received with clearance), but then the pilots suddenly made a turn to the left. The issue is that an American A321 had been cleared for takeoff on runway 25R just moments earlier, and that’s to the south of runway 24L. So when the Air France pilots started turning to the left, they went directly into the path of the American plane. Fortunately the air traffic controller quickly caught this, but it created a traffic alert, and the planes had less than a mile of separation. Mistakes happen, but what’s strange here is how this was handled after the initial incident. The air traffic controller asked the Air France pilots why they made a turn. The Air France pilot responded “standby,” which is fair enough. Pilots are supposed to be focused first on aviating, then on navigating, and then on communicating. Moments later, the air traffic controller followed up and asked what departure the pilots had been instructed to fly. Once again, the pilot responded “standby one.” I do think the air traffic controller should’ve been a bit more patient here when a pilot is asking him to hold on for a second. At the same, the Air France pilots seemingly just kept stalling, and seemed to be unable to answer the question. Of course we don’t know what was going on in the cockpit (it’s possible they were dealing with something else), but the controller wasn’t asking a complicated question. The pilots ended up getting a phone number for a possible pilot deviation. It’s truly a mystery what caused the pilots to make that left turn, especially since they were flying to Tahiti, which is basically a straight westbound departure (and in the middle of the night, it’s not like you typically need to vector to the east when departing LAX). LAX runway 24L departures are a consistent issue Regardless of how good a system looks on paper, you of course have to consider human factors, and how systems are actually perceived. For reasons that are somewhat of a mystery, there seem to be repeated issues with planes departing from runway 24L at LAX making a turn to the left, and turning into the path of planes departing from runway 25R. Just a couple of weeks ago, I covered how a TAP Air Portugal Airbus A330neo departing runway 24L at LAX made an unauthorized left turn immediately after takeoff, putting itself in the path of another jet. Heck, just a couple of months ago, an Air France Boeing 777 departing runway 24L at LAX made an almost identical mistake, and turned left right after takeoff, when it wasn’t supposed to. That’s only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the number of these incidents we’ve seen. I’m not sure what exactly is going on here, and if it’s a case of pilots programming their computers for a departure from runway 25R, only to get assigned runway 24L, or what. But either way, it seems something should be done here. As redundant as it might sound when you’re sending pilots to a specific fix (which already tells them which direction they should go), it almost seems like air traffic control needs to add in a warning about not making a left turn without authorization. I mean, it sounds silly, but… Bottom line An Air France Airbus A350 departing LAX made an unauthorized left turn after takeoff, sending it right into the path of a departing American Airbus A321. The pilots really seemed to struggle with answering air traffic control’s basic questions, though I don’t know what was actually going on in the cockpit. What’s so strange is how there seem to be repeated issues with departures from runway 24L, as we’ve now seen this “unauthorized left turn” situation from this exact runway several times in recent weeks alone. What do you make of this LAX runway 24L issue?