The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has opened a formal investigation after two passenger airliners nearly collided in midair shortly after taking off from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), infohub.kz reports.
The incident occurred on Saturday at about 00:20 local time. The crew of Air France flight 28, bound for Papeete on the island of Tahiti, made an unauthorized turn and crossed the path of an American Airlines jet taking off from a parallel runway. According to flight trackers, the vertical separation between the aircraft narrowed to about 400 feet (roughly 120 meters). The two planes were carrying about 500 people combined.
A tragedy was averted by the emergency intervention of air traffic controllers, captured on audio recording. The controller immediately ordered the Air France crew to turn to heading 270 and warned the American Airlines pilots of the dangerous proximity, instructing them to maintain 2,000 feet. Asked by the controller about the deviation from the agreed departure procedure (SID), the French pilot said he was flying the SUMMR TWO departure. Once the situation was resolved, the regulator logged a "possible pilot deviation" and gave the crew a phone number to contact the authorities.
Captain Richard Levy, an experienced instructor and former U.S. Air Force pilot, said that in 41 years of civil aviation practice he had never encountered a case of the wrong departure procedure being selected in an aircraft's computer. He stressed that the TCAS system, which commands a climb or descent, must have activated in the cockpits. An Air France representative confirmed that the crew of flight AF028 adjusted its trajectory on instructions from ground services and then landed safely in Papeete at 05:59 a.m. No passengers were injured.