Two aircraft had a very, very close call while taking off at Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH). This happened as a pilot made a major error, and the air traffic controller seemed a bit slow to catch it.
In this post:
Volaris & United Express jets have close call in Houston
VASAviation has the details of what happened on December 18, 2025, at Houston Intercontinental Airport. It involves two aircraft that were given takeoff clearance around the same time:
- Volaris El Salvador flight 4321 was operated by an Airbus A320neo, and was departing to San Salvador (SAL); the plane was cleared for takeoff on runway 33L, and was given the instruction to turn left to a heading of 110 after takeoff
- United Express flight 4814 was operated by a CommuteAir Embraer E145, and was departing to Jackson (JAN); around 20 seconds after the Volaris plane was cleared for takeoff, this plane was cleared for takeoff on runway 33R, and was given the instruction to turn right to a heading of 340 after takeoff
Just to clarify a couple of points, runway 33L and 33R are parallel, and the runways are at a heading of roughly 330 degrees. So the United Express plane was supposed to turn slightly right (just several degrees), while the Volaris plane was supposed to turn 220 degrees to the left.
The two aircraft ended up starting their takeoff roll around the same time, as clearly the Volaris pilots took a few extra moments to prepare themselves, which isn’t an issue. So the planes become airborne around the same time, which is fine, because the planes were supposed to head in opposite directions.
The reason this became an issue is because — inexplicably — the Volaris plane turned right after takeoff, instead of left, sending the planes on a direct collision course. The planes ended up frighteningly close to one another, in terms of both vertical and horizontal distance.
After takeoff, the Volaris pilot asked air traffic control to confirm that they were supposed to turn right to a heading of 110 degrees, to which the controller responded “let’s see, Jetsal 4321, yes, so left turn to 110.” At this point, both planes were showing a “collision alert” on the radar, yet clearly the controller was so overworked that she didn’t even notice that, as she was giving takeoff clearance to another plane.
The first acknowledgement on the frequency of anything being wrong was when the United Express pilot shared that they just had an RA. This is a resolution advisory, giving specific instructions that pilots should use to avoid a collision, and it’s part of TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System).
The controller responded to the transmission with “standby,” and gave another plane instructions to continue on runway heading. It’s also pretty incredible to see how far north of the airport the Volaris plane ended up…
What on earth went wrong with this incident?
This incident was pilot error, plain and simple. The Volaris plane was supposed to turn left, but instead, the plane turned right. That’s despite the fact that the pilot correctly read back the instructions.
I’m not sure what was wrong with their crew resource management that could’ve caused this. This wasn’t a case of a miscommunication, since both the controller instructions and read back were for a left turn. Furthermore, if the pilots had any situational awareness (like considering that they were taking off from the left runway, while another plane was taking off from the right runway), they would’ve known that turning right wasn’t the way to go.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a contributing factor here was that they were given instructions to turn more than 180 degrees, and that caused some confusion (since you’d otherwise naturally make a right turn in such a situation). Of course that doesn’t excuse it, but this likely wouldn’t have happened if they had been given more incremental turning instructions, like first turning left 90 degrees (where they would’ve never considered a right turn).
What’s also so strange about this interaction is that based on the tone of voice and communication, you’d assume that absolutely nothing happened. Now, I don’t want to say that panicking on frequency benefits anyone, but the controller and pilots sort of acted as if nothing happened, and it was only the United Express pilot who brought something up.
Air traffic controllers are overworked, though still, it’s surprising how long it took the air traffic controller to realize that something was going on. And she also didn’t do a great job prioritizing that dangerous situation, over controlling other aircraft.
Along those lines — and I don’t think it was a contributing factor here — but she constantly used non-standard phraseology, like “let’s see,” “let’s go,” “go ahead,” etc.
Bottom line
A Volaris Airbus A320neo and United Express Embraer E145 had a very close call at Houston Intercontinental Airport. The planes were given takeoff clearance around the same time, with one plane being instructed to turn left, and the other being instructed to turn right. For whatever reason, the Volaris pilots decided to turn right instead of left, putting them on a collision course with the United Express plane. As usual, TCAS saved the day…
What do you make of this close call in Houston?
Oh not again and again and again!!
We're still unnecessarily gambling with human lives.
Most probably the pilots preset the heading of 110 degrees. The logic on the Airbus is that it will maintain the runway heading until the pilots select heading mode. Once selected, the plane will turn in the shortest direction to the new heading, in this case right by 140 degrees instead of left by 220 degrees as ATC required
Because in most jets the flight directors will command the turn to your preselected FCU heading of 220 the shortest way around…..it’s a known gotcha in IAH. Solution is once you get off the ground, then pull heading and rotate it to the left all the way over to 220 the flight directors will command the correct direction of turn!
Ben - paragraph after the bullet points: turn 220 degrees to the left, not right.
@ Baliken -- Important detail, right? :p Fixed, thank you.