On October 31, 2025, a serious incident occurred at LAX when Italian ITA Airways nearly collided mid-air with an American Airlines flight shortly after takeoff.
- Air traffic controllers and pilots averted the incident where ITA Airways flight 621, an Airbus A330-900 heading to Rome, departed from runway 24L. Just seconds later, American Airlines flight AA4, an Airbus A321 bound for New York JFK, departed from runway 25R.
- At LAX, planes departing from parallel runways follow carefully designed routes that ensure safe separation. However, the ITA flight deviated dramatically by making a sudden, unauthorized left turn immediately after lifting off, directly toward the flight path of the American Airlines jet.
- A controller ordered ITA Airways to turn sharply back to the right. Simultaneously, American Airlines AA4 was instructed to halt its climb at just 1,500 feet. The two planes reportedly came within approximately one mile of each other horizontally, both at around the same altitude. That’s a critical near-miss in aviation terms.
SoCal Departure immediately intervened: “621 heavy, turn right heading 270 immediately,” while simultaneously telling AA4: “stop your altitude climb… 1500” and calling out the traffic one mile to their left at 1,500 ft. That combination (stop‑climb for AA4 + right turn for AZ621) re‑established geometry.
When the controller asked the pilots of AZ621 why they had turned south instead of flying straight as instructed (“You should have been runway heading… is there a reason you turned?”), their response was simply, “Sorry.”
Controllers then issued a formal notice of a “possible pilot deviation,” instructing the pilots to contact air traffic control upon landing in Rome.
Close call at LAX ✈️
On Oct 31, ITA Airways flight #AZ621 took off from runway 24L and turned left after departure — straight into the path of American Airlines flight #AA4 from runway 25R.
The planes came within about 1 km (0.6 nm) at the same altitude. pic.twitter.com/uiBRQKUeGi
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) November 9, 2025
There’s some speculation that the pilots of the ITA flight may have mistakenly loaded the wrong departure path into their onboard navigation computers. At LAX, each runway has its specific departure routes to ensure planes move safely apart after takeoff. When pilots mistakenly program their flight management system for the wrong runway, they’d cause the aircraft to follow the incorrect path automatically once airborne.
Both air traffic control and the American Airlines pilots handled this well. I do wonder about not double-checking the programmed route against the assigned runway before takeoff.
For any pilot, a simple life goal is not ending up in a VASAviation video.
Glad no one was hurt.
Republicans need to stop holding ATC and Americans hostage.
I have now added ITA to my “avoid” list.
ATC are everyday heroes, on par with first responders and sadly, are treated like shit by American government. It is a disgrace. And so is the present regime in Washington.
We can always count on @1990 to make a ridiculous (and always wrong) political comment in what is actually a Travel Blog. The FR24 graphic shows it clearly, the Airbus A321-200 operating AA4 appears to be 1.5 Km West of the runway, which puts its speed in the 300-500 Km/H range. That puts the 1 Km separation between aircraft in the 7-12 second range. As Gary says, kudos to both the AA Pilots and the ATC, their professionaism keeps us safe.
What was that 1990? The Schumer shutdown strikes (or I guess nearly strikes, thankfully) again. Maybe the lib sheep won’t vote “no” on reopening the government for the 15th time in a row now.
If the healthcare subsidies (which were never meant to be permanent in the first place) were so important, maybe when the Dems controlled the house, the senate, and the White House, they should have extended them for longer than just 1 year in 2021 and then 3 more years in 2022. Why didn’t they do that? Oh, because the 10 year budget view would have made the cost so astronomical that it would have never gotten through – so instead, they extended for 3 years, which skewed and made the 10 year cost outlook more palatable. But it’s all just a sleight of hand.
A story about ATC during a government shutdown, where these heroes are working without pay… yeah… ‘shh… no politics, we just want the jobs the comet will bring…’ (Don’t Look Up.)
Dear God, #1990, can you just give it a rest. Please.
@Thing 1 — No thanks. You first.
@1990, I don’t think anyone goes straight to their politics in this forum as quickly as you do — although some others are close. You seem like an intelligent, and I assume well-meaning person. But when we look at all the hate and anger in the world today, all the ugliness, each of us can be part of the problem or part of the solution. It doesn’t mean one never discusses politics, but again, there’s so much hate and anger out there, one can be part of the problem or part of the solution.
Please be part of the solution — maybe you can inspire others on the opposing side to do the same.
No need to reply, I don’t anticipate checking back on this post and won’t see it.