A mistake by an air traffic controller sent a plane close to mountains and in the flight path of another jet, according a news report.
ABC7 News reports an EVA Air Boeing 777 was instructed to turn left instead of right by a San Diego air traffic controller, sending it close to mountains above Altadena, CA.
The plane had just taken off from Los Angeles heading to Taipei.
That also took it toward an Air Canada plane which had just left LAX.
According to audio transcripts, San Diego ATC can be heard saying: "EVA 015 Heavy, what are you doing? Turn southbound now, southbound now. Stop your climb."
This instruction was repeated several times, the report says.
It took more than a minute for crew to heed the warning and change direction.
The early Friday incident played out above the San Gabriel Valley during a heavy rainstorm.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the EVA jet did not come close enough to the other plane to warrant evasive action but a FAA investigation will be conducted to see if it flew too close to the mountains.
Referring to the air traffic controller, the FAA’s Ian Gregor said: "She meant to tell the pilot to make a right turn to a 180-degree heading. The pilot turned to the left. The controller quickly realized EVA was turning in the wrong direction. She took immediate action to keep EVA safely separated from an Air Canada jet that had departed LAX off the north runway complex.”
