Air traffic control personnel stepped in when an Air France passenger jet made a mistaken turn after takeoff over the weekend from Los Angeles International Airport and into the path of another plane, the FAA says.
Flight 28 made what the FAA called an unauthorized turn after taking off from LAX just after midnight Saturday bound for the island of Tahiti. The turn placed the plane in the path of another aircraft that departed from a parallel runway, the FAA said.
The Air France plane came within 300 to 400 vertical feet of an American Airlines Airbus headed to Dallas, NBC News reported. In air traffic control audio, the Air France crew can be heard being told to change its path “immediately.”
“Air traffic control immediately issued corrective instructions to the Air France flight,” the agency said.
Air France confirmed the crew received the request from air traffic control shortly after takeoff to adjust its flight path.
“The crew immediately followed the instructions before continuing the flight,” the airline said.
The plane landed at its destination just before 6 a.m. local time.