Air France AF28 Turned Left After Takeoff From LAX, Toward an American A321 Climbing Off the Next Runway

Air France flight AF28, an Airbus A350-900 bound for Papeete, turned left shortly after taking off from runway 24L at Los Angeles at about 12:15 a.m. on Saturday, November 7, 2026. The turn pointed it toward American Airlines flight AA1660, an A321 that had just departed from the parallel runway 25R for Dallas-Fort Worth.

The departure controller turned the A350 back to the west, stopped the American jet’s climb at 2,000 feet and called the traffic at less than a mile. Both flights continued, and the Air France crew was given a number to call about a possible pilot deviation.

What the recording shows

The air traffic control audio was posted on November 8 by the X account Turbinetraveler, alongside a Flightradar24 replay. The replay identifies the jets as A350-900 F-HUVK, flying as AFR028, and A321 N191UW as AAL1660, both airborne around 08:16 UTC.

On the recording, the American crew checks in at 2,000 feet, climbing to 5,000. The controller then tells Air France 28 to fly heading 270 immediately, and warns American of traffic at 12 o’clock, less than a mile, with an instruction to maintain 2,000.

Once the jets were apart, the controller told the Air France crew they had been instructed to climb via the departure procedure, not to turn to a heading, and asked why they had turned. The crew asked for a minute before confirming the departure they had been given, the SUMMR TWO.

The controller then advised a possible pilot deviation and offered a phone number to call when the crew was ready. American 1660 was cleared up to 17,000 feet, and AF28 continued west toward French Polynesia.

How close the two jets came is not settled. The controller’s “less than a mile” is the only figure on the frequency, while the Turbinetraveler post puts the vertical gap at about 400 feet. It is not known whether either crew got a collision-avoidance resolution advisory.

AeroCorner found no public comment from Air France or the FAA at the time of writing, and the reason for the turn is unknown. View from the Wing lists the usual candidates, a wrong route in the flight computer, a manually selected heading or a cockpit misunderstanding, without settling on one.

Why a left turn off 24L is a problem

Los Angeles International has two pairs of parallel runways, the 24s on the north side and the 25s on the south, with the terminals in between. On the airport diagram, 24L and 25R are the inner runways, so their westbound departures climb out closest to one another.

The FAA chart for the SUMMR TWO, one of LAX’s standard instrument departures, gives each runway its own first fix. From 24L, jets fly a heading of 251 degrees to 640 feet, then direct to DLREY and on toward ENNEY.

From 25R, jets go to a different fix, DOCKR, and then EVOSE. The two streams run out over the Pacific side by side, so a jet off 24L that turns left early swings across the path of whatever has just left 25R.

That is why the controller’s first fix was a westerly heading for the A350 and a level-off for the A321. Stopping a climb at 2,000 feet keeps a vertical gap open while the turning aircraft is steered away.

Not the first early turn off 24L

AF28 is the latest in a run of departures off 24L that left the procedure early. On October 20, TAP flight TP248 headed for the wrong first fix after takeoff, then turned right when told to turn left.

The closest match came on October 31, 2025. ITA Airways AZ621, an A330-900 bound for Rome, turned left off 24L toward American AA4, an A321 departing 25R for New York, according to The Aviation Herald.

ADS-B data cited in that report put the two jets at the same altitude and 0.6 nautical miles apart. The controller held American at 1,500 feet, turned the ITA jet to a heading of 270 and gave the crew a pilot deviation number, the same sequence heard on November 7.

A possible pilot deviation call is not a finding of fault. Under the FAA’s air traffic procedures, the controller gives the crew a number to call and documents the event, which then goes to the agency’s flight standards office for review.

All three crews were foreign carriers on long-haul departures, flying an A350-900 or an A330-900 off the same runway. Whether that is a pattern or coincidence is a question only the FAA’s own data can answer.