LOS ANGELES _ The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating an incident in which an aircraft was given the wrong heading by traffic controllers and directed toward another aircraft after departing Los Angeles International Airport.
Bound for Taiwan, the EVA Air Boeing 777 took off early Friday from the airport's south runway complex, according to FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. After takeoff, the air crew switched from the LAX control tower to the approach control operations in San Diego.
"The air traffic controller at the approach control who was handling EVA instructed the pilot to make a left turn to a 180-degree heading," he said. "She meant to tell the pilot to make a right turn to a 180-degree heading."
The move sent the plane in the wrong direction, Gregor said.
Instead of flying south, the aircraft flew north toward an Air Canada jet that had departed from the airport's north runaway complex, he said.
When the controller realized the mistake, she "took immediate action to keep EVA safely separated" from the second aircraft, Gregor said. She issued the EVA pilot a series of instructions to help him turn south.
"The controller wanted to make sure the EVA aircraft was safely above or away from nearby terrain," he said.
Throughout the incident, the planes remained separated by the required distance and "never got too close," Gregor said. Regulations require that airliners be separated by at least three miles laterally, or 2,000 feet vertically.
The FAA also is looking into how high the aircraft was flying above the ground northeast of the airport, according to Gregor.
At least one Altadena resident reported hearing the low flying plane, KABC-TV reported.
