Jets in three-way close call at Reagan National Airport

— -- An air-traffic-control mistake caused two regional jets to take off in the wrong direction and fly too close to an incoming regional jet in the skies above Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Tuesday afternoon.

The landing jet came within 800 feet in altitude of both departing jets and about nine-tenths of a lateral mile from one and 2.4 miles from the other. Federal regulations require a separation of 1,000 feet in altitude and 3 lateral miles.

Miscommunication between air-traffic controllers in a facility in Warrenton, Va., and a tower at the airport "led to a loss of the required separation," the Federal Aviation Administration says.

All three aircraft were operated by Republic Airlines and Chautauqua Airlines— two of the nine US Airways Express carriers. Both fly Embraer regional jets. US Airways spokesman Andrew Christie said there were a total of 192 passengers and crew on the three jets.

The FAA says that just after 2 p.m. Tuesday, the air-traffic facility in Warrenton, which is called the Potomac TRACON, changed the air-traffic flow at Reagan National Airport because of "bad weather developing south of the airport."

Planes had been landing and taking off on Runway 1 until the TRACON switched landings and takeoffs to Runway 19. Controllers also changed the direction planes were taking off and landing.

During the switch, two jets taking off from Runway 1 — Chautauqua Airlines Flight 3071 bound for Columbus, Ohio, and Republic Airlines Flight 3467 bound for Kansas City, Mo. — flew too closely to incoming Republic Airlines Flight 3328.

The departing planes should have been heading south instead of north, says FAA Administrator Michael Huerta.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says a controller noticed the issue and told pilots to increase separation.

Huerta says the aircraft were "at no point" on a collision course. "What we had was a loss of separation."

Though fatal accidents are rare, air-traffic controller error is not.

A Government Accountability Office report released last October said the rate of reported airborne operational errors in "the terminal area" nearly doubled from the second quarter of fiscal year 2008 to the second quarter of fiscal year 2011 The terminal area extends about 5 miles from an airport to a TRACON facility.

According to the GAO, there were 378 airborne operational errors — an average of more than four per day — by air-traffic controllers in the second quarter of fiscal year 2011.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, a union representing controllers, did not return a call for comment.