As TODAY's Natalie Morales reports, federal officials are investigating why air traffic controllers at Washington National Airport instructed two planes to take off in the path of a landing jet.
By NBC News staff and wire reports
Updated at 2:35 p.m. ET -- Transportation officials on Thursday acknowledged a ?loss of separation? involving three regional jets at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Tuesday, but insisted the aircraft were never on a collision course.
?At no point were these planes on a head-to-head collision point,? Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told reporters on Thursday.
Michael Huerta, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, said the incident occurred because of a miscommunication between a manager at Potomac Tracon???the region's radar control facility?? and traffic management coordinators at Reagan National.
LaHood and Huerta credited a tower controller at Reagan National who recognized a problem and handled the situation.
Potomac Tracon altered traffic flow at Reagan National because of bad weather, FAA said in a statement, which "led to a loss of the required separation between two regional jets" departing from the same runway and a third regional jet that was bound for Reagan National. The agency is investigating "and will take appropriate action to address the miscommunication."
On Wednesday,?the Washington Post reported?the three US Airways jets carrying 192 passengers and crew members came within seconds of a midair collision around 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday, citing federal officials with direct knowledge of the incident.
The Post report cited a discussion between a pilot and an air traffic controller:
?Are you with me?? the tower controller asked the inbound pilot, checking to see whether he was tuned to her radio frequency. When the pilot acknowledged her, she ordered him to make an abrupt turn to the south to avoid the other two planes.
?We were cleared [for landing] at the river there,? the pilot said after breaking off the approach northwest of the airport. ?What happened??
After a pause, the controller said, ?Stand by, we?re trying to figure this out.?
As she directed him to make a loop around the airport for a second landing attempt the pilot cautioned: ?We really don?t have enough fuel here for this. We have to get on the ground pretty quick.?
The planes all reached their destinations safely.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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