Changes Urged for LAX Tower After Close Call : Safety: Pilot of Brazilian plane did not understand controller’s instructions to switch from runway that another plane was approaching. The FAA is investigating.

Federal officials have proposed changes in air traffic control procedures at Los Angeles International Airport after two jetliners approached the airport for a landing on the same runway at the same time.

A special alert bulletin was issued by the Los Angeles Terminal Radar Approach Control facility at Los Angeles International on Tuesday after officials reviewed the Sunday incident involving a Brazilian jumbo jet and a smaller USAir jetliner, said Richard Cox, an air traffic specialist with the Federal Aviation Administration in Washington.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that it is sending an air traffic expert to study the incident, which occurred a little more than a year after a USAir jet landing at teh airport crashed into a SkyWest commuter plane that had been cleared to take off on the same runway at LAX, killing 34 passengers and crew members from the two aircraft.

Officials say Sunday’s incident apparently stemmed from the foreign cockpit crew’s failure to understand the controllers’ instructions. The proposed changes call for the elimination of airport approach procedures that may not be familiar to foreign pilots.

The Varig Airlines 747-400 and the USAir 737-300 were both on final instrument approach to Runway 24 Right when air traffic controllers instructed the pilot of the Brazilian plane to “sidestep” 850 feet south for a visual approach and landing on parallel Runway 24 Left.

“Basically, he didn’t do what he was supposed to do . . . and he kept on going (for Runway 24 Right),” said Karl Grundmann, a controller at the airport. “There was a discussion back and forth, and I guess he was confused, he didn’t understand.”

Apparently because of this confusion, the pilot of the Varig plane finally decided to abort the landing and pulled up for a go-around.

Seconds later, the USAir jet, which had been above and behind the Varig 747, landed safely on Runway 24 Right, on which it was still cleared to land. After a few minutes, the jumbo jet returned to the airport and landed safely.

Cox said the pilot of the USAir jet kept the bigger plane in sight during the entire approach, and although the two planes reportedly closed to within an eighth of a mile of each other, there was no danger of a collision. Neither cockpit crew filed an incident report, which is required if a crew believes its plane was endangered.

Nonetheless, FAA officials were concerned about the breakdown in communications with the Brazilian plane.

As a result, the airport’s approach control facility has issued a bulletin calling for the elimination of all sidestepping maneuvers at the airport.

In addition, the officials have suggested that most foreign carriers be restricted to instrument approaches to the airport, with only domestic and Canadian carriers permitted to make visual approaches.

Under instrument approaches, pilots follow procedures and instrument readings that are standardized and published worldwide. Under visual approaches, pilots refer to local geographic features, whose names and locations may not be familiar to all.

Cox and Grundmann said the proposal to end visual approaches for foreign carriers would formalize something that already has become standard practice at LAX.

“This would make it official,” Grundmann said. “Unofficially, we’ve been doing it for a long time.”