FAA Investigates Near-Collision Incident at LAX

Federal aviation authorities are currently investigating a concerning near-miss incident that occurred at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) early Saturday morning. The event took place around 12:20 a.m. on November 7, involving an Air France Airbus A350-900 bound for Tahiti and an American Airlines Airbus A321-200 headed to Dallas. Both aircraft had departed from parallel runways when the Air France flight unexpectedly deviated from its assigned departure path.

According to reports, the Air France jet made an unauthorized turn that placed it directly in the flight trajectory of the American Airlines aircraft. Air traffic control personnel acted swiftly to mitigate the risk, issuing immediate corrective instructions to the Air France crew to return to their proper heading. Simultaneously, controllers directed the American Airlines pilots to adjust their altitude to maintain safe separation between the two passenger jets.

Audio recordings from the incident capture the urgency of the situation, with controllers explicitly reminding the Air France flight crew that they were instructed to climb rather than execute a turn. The FAA has categorized the incident as a potential pilot deviation, a designation used when flight crews fail to adhere to air traffic control directives, which can lead to further disciplinary review.

While flight tracking data provided varying accounts of the proximity, some sources indicated the aircraft were within 400 to 1,000 feet of each other vertically at their closest point. Despite the gravity of the situation, both flights were able to continue to their intended destinations without further incident. Air France confirmed that its crew complied with the instructions provided by ground control, and the airline is cooperating with the ongoing investigation.