Close Call Avoids Catastrophic Midair Collision Over Houston

One wrong turn after takeoff nearly caused a catastrophic midair collision over Houston, Texas.

Two passenger jets came dangerously close to colliding just after takeoff from George Bush Intercontinental Airport, and federal officials say the outcome could have been catastrophic.
According to the FAA, Volaris Flight 4321 was instructed by air traffic control to turn left after departure. However, the plane mistakenly turned right, which put them right in the path of CommuteAir Flight 814, which had just taken off from a parallel runway.
Aviation expert Josh Verde made it very clear what disaster was avoided:

"Two presumably packed airliners would have collided at low altitude and low speed, and it would have killed everybody on board both airplanes," he said.

Verde, a former airline captain and current aviation consultant, stressed that the incident was much closer to disaster than most people realize, but also that near-collisions like that happen more often than passengers would expect.
At their nearest point, the aircraft were separated by roughly 700 feet horizontally and only 150 feet vertically. According to Verde, that margin is “way too close” for commercial airliners carrying passengers.
Verde stressed that the incident doesn’t automatically point to unsafe airlines or incompetent pilots. "Humans are error-prone from time to time, and this kind of thing does happen, and it's exactly why we have systems like TCAS (Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System) to be kind of an extra set of eyes to look out for these kinds of things and to advise the pilots if there's a collision hazard."
Both airlines say they are cooperating with the investigation. Officials have not announced whether further action will be taken as the review continues.

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