Rome Flight Turns Toward American Airlines Jet Seconds After Takeoff From LAX — Controller Averts Major Near Miss

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.