Planes Avoid Collision After Unauthorized Turn at Los Angeles Airport

Two commercial airliners narrowly avoided a midair collision on Saturday at Los Angeles International Airport after finding themselves on converging paths just moments after taking off from parallel runways. The tense incident involved an Air France Airbus A350-900, which was heading to Papeete in French Polynesia, and an American Airlines Airbus A321 bound for Dallas-Fort Worth. United States aviation authorities are actively investigating the sequence of events that led to the near-miss.

According to flight tracking data gathered by Wingbits, the two aircraft departed from separate tracks, with the Air France flight taking off from runway 24L and the American Airlines flight leaving from runway 25R. Shortly after takeoff, the lateral distance between the two planes shrank to a mere 0.76 nautical miles. At the same time, their vertical separation dropped to approximately 300 feet, which translates to about 92 meters, when the aircraft were roughly 1.6 nautical miles apart.

A catastrophic accident was averted thanks to prompt intervention from air traffic controllers and corrective evasive maneuvers executed by the flight crews. Despite the alarming proximity of the aircraft, no injuries were reported among passengers or crew members. Both planes managed to continue their respective journeys and successfully landed at their intended destinations without further incident.

Audio recordings from the airport control tower captured the high level of tension following the close call. Air traffic controllers noticed that the flight crew of the Air France plane appeared visibly shaken after executing the requested safety maneuvers. To ensure operational safety, the controller granted the pilots a brief moment to regain their composure and restore their focus before asking for verbal confirmation of previous instructions and continuing with routine guidance.

Federal Aviation Administration officials are currently reviewing flight data and radio communications to determine why both aircraft initiated an unauthorized left turn almost simultaneously immediately after departure. Investigators aim to establish accountability and identify any potential vulnerabilities in standard takeoff procedures at the busy airport.

The close call in California coincides with a broader period of heightened aviation security concerns across Europe and internationally, where officials are grappling with a series of hybrid threats, cyberattacks, and coordinated bomb hoaxes targeting commercial transport systems. While European authorities and organizations like Eurocontrol monitor dozens of false threat reports on regional flights, the Los Angeles incident remains an isolated operational event tied directly to localized flight paths and immediate air traffic management.