. >> reporter: an alarming miscommunication at reagan national aport.allowed two regional jets to launch as another plane was coming in to land and there wasn't enough space between them all. >> we weren't clear what happened back there. >> standby. >> that miscommunication should not have happened. >> reporter: but it did happen tuesday afternoon when a storm caused a shift in the wind and controllers were changing the direction of all take offs and landings. the first jet to take off and the incoming plane were 12 seconds apart. >> where was the break down in procedure? we have to understand where it was so we can make sure it doesn't happen again. >> reporter: according to the faa, operational errors are growing. # 1234 in 2009. and congress general accounting office says serious airborne errors tripled in the last three years nationwide. wjz first investigated the problem in 2007 after two planes missed each other on intersecting runways by just 400 feet. even then, a captain told us the problem was growing worse. >> as traffic has increased, we're