An Air France aircraft made an “unauthorized turn” out of Los Angeles International Airport on Saturday and nearly collided with another plane, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Air France Flight 28, which took off shortly before midnight on Saturday, “went into the path of another aircraft that departed from a parallel runway,” the FAA said. “Air traffic control immediately issued corrective instructions to the Air France flight.”
The plane, bound for Tahiti, came within 500 vertical feet of an American Airlines flight headed for Dallas-Fort Worth, according to air traffic control audio and flight tracking data reviewed by the Times.
The Air France flight appeared to veer into the takeoff path of the American Airlines flight and air traffic control said the planes were within a mile of one another. Controllers commanded the Air France plane to change course immediately, and afterward questioned the French pilot about whether the correct instructions had been relayed.
The near miss is the latest in a string of recent safety incidents at LAX. In one incident on Oct. 6, two planes collided on the runway. A month later, a Southwest flight had to make an emergency landing at the airport.
Air France and American Airlines did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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