United 1152 Turns Into Oncoming Jet | SFO Near Miss Explained (San Francisco, CA)

YouTube ^ | May 31, 2025 | Captain Steve

[ProtectOurFreedom]

On May 13th, 2025, a potentially catastrophic mistake unfolded at San Francisco International Airport when United Airlines Flight 1152 turned the wrong way after takeoff—directly into the path of SkyWest Flight 5273.

This was one of the closest calls we've seen this year—just 0.4 nautical miles and 280 feet separated these two planes. We walk through the ATC audio, analyze the pilot decision-making, and talk about what needs to change to prevent this from happening

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Wow, this was a close one today. Two jets simultaneously departed SFO on parallel runways (common practice at SFO). UA 1152 departed runway 1R (almost exactly northbound) and should have turned RIGHT at 500 ft. Instead, UA 1152 turned LEFT in front of Skywest 5273. There was good heads-up flying by the Skywest pilot who turned to the right behind UA 1152.

Captain Steve's theory is that UA 1152 had oringally dialed in 28L (their initially assigned departure runway). They were then changed to 1R but didn't change their Nav system for the new heading. They were directed by ATC to maintain runway heading after takeoff. Because they did not change the heading in the Nav system, it turned to heading 284° instead of maintaining heading 014°.

ATC instructed UA1152 to "continue runway heading." UA thought that meant 284°, but ATC was expecting 014°. So UA pilot was confused since he thought he WAS ON the runway heading. How can a pilot take off due north on a sunny day think he was on an almost due west heading? 1R points at Oakland, CA. 28L points at Daly City, CA.

This looks like a HUGE screw up by the UA pilot. There was almost a mid-air collision that would have lost 150 lives.

Original 28L assignment to UA1152:

New 1R assignment to UA1152:

[al baby]

So they hit ?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

No. Near miss. 300 ft separation. UA goofed and turned LEFT when they should have turned RIGHT. They turned in front of Skywest.

[tennmountainman]

DEI has infested the Skies.

[Yashcheritsiy]

PRIVATE PYLE, DO YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT YOU DO NOT KNOW YOUR LEFT FROM YOUR RIGHT??

[eyeamok]

Approach let me fly 500 ft under the nose of an airliner once in my 172 30 some years ago in the San Fernando Valley

[crusty old prospector]

You gotta keep ‘em separated.

[Navy Patriot]

SFO Near Miss Explained (San Francisco, CA)

Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Low, Bang Ding Ow, Ho Lee Fuk and other pilots explain SFO's problem.

[KC_Conspirator]

yep

[BipolarBob]

Private Pyle, grab your right ear with your right hand.
Yes sir.
Now, grab your left ear with your left hand.
Yes sir.
Now pull your head out of your a$$ and straighten up.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Captain Steve says that UA has 50% new pilots over the past five years and insufficient experience. He says that Congress passed a law that pilots have to retire at age 65.

Unfortunately, we never hear about who was in the cockpit. Because there was no crash today, there will be no NTSB report.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Yep!

[Chickensoup]

the onboard computer was not reprogrammed when they were sent to different takeoff runway.

[GMThrust]

United is known as “Yo Nited” for good reason.

[StAnDeliver]

Ho Li Fuk when the Skywest jock saw that bird in his face...

[wally_bert]

This wouldn’t happen if Pernell Roberts was running SFO.

https://youtu.be/RYX1UYLbF7c?si=ayDEJnPKRpA7m_xL

MST3K fun.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

I'd have to see pictures of the pilots, and know their real
sex and ethnicity before I could provide any useful insight.

[xp38]

Not so friendly these days

[broken_clock]

“Right turn, Clyde!”

[ChronicMA]

pilots make mistakes, you need to give them time to correct their mistakes.

Having two planes take off parallel in the same direction reduces the time they have to correct themselves too much.

The first mistake was letting planes take off parallel in the same direction, that is a controller system mistake.