Complicated takeoff maneuvers required to lessen the impact of jet noise in Southern California and across the nation have been blamed by commercial airline pilots for causing near in-air collisions and for creating other safety hazards, a Times survey of federal safety reports shows.

The most critical reports focus on John Wayne Airport in Orange County, which one pilot called "extremely hazardous" because of its mix of heavy air traffic and noise-limiting departure methods that hamper pilots' ability to evade oncoming planes.

Complaints have also been aimed at Long Beach and Burbank airports because steep ascents to minimize noise make the jetliners less maneuverable even as they fly into airspace filled with small private planes, what some pilots call "the swarms."

And, around the country, flight crews and air traffic controllers have filed hundreds of reports warning that anti-noise procedures are compromising safety:

* At Minneapolis, on consecutive days in February, 1986, the control tower had been ordered to route landing and departing aircraft to runways 11-Left and 11-Right despite moderate tail winds gusting up to 11 knots. Aircraft should have landed from the opposite direction, but that was less desirable for minimizing noise over area neighborhoods.

At a meeting with traffic control supervisors and airport management officials, a controller noted that "airplanes of all sizes" were having unnecessary trouble landing. Approach speeds were erratic and planes were using more runway than normal before getting on the ground.

"My personal opinion is . . . we were operating a potentially unsafe operation," the controller wrote in an aviation safety report filed with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. That opinion was overruled.

Seven months later, a commuter plane was cleared to land on runway 11-Left. Crosswinds gusting to 26 knots complicated the approach. Later, the captain would say that runway 22 was preferred but that "pilots are intimidated not to request that runway for landing" because of aggressive noise abatement efforts at the airport.

The commuter, a twin-engine turboprop, was unable to reverse thrust on one propeller and veered uncontrollably to the right, running off the runway. The plane suffered minor damage when bounding over a grassy area.