Air traffic control errors soar in 2010

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Errors by U.S. air traffic controllers rose by half in 2010, Federal Aviation Administration records show.

The FAA also warned this week that tracking systems aboard more than 9,000 planes may not be sensing all nearby planes, The Washington Post reported.

The FAA wants mandatory software upgrades to ensure the emergency units don't make mistakes that could lead to in-flight collisions.

The record number of errors includes some incidents where collisions were narrowly averted.

This month in Cincinnati, a regional plane was told to land on the same runway from which a Delta 737 was taking off. And in September, two planes passed each other about 50 feet apart in a cloud bank because of controller errors in Minneapolis.

Administrator Randy Babbitt said the FAA operates an "incredibly safe system," and crash fatalities involving commercial airliners are at an all-time low.

The National Transportation Safety Board has begun investigating the most serious mistakes by air traffic controllers.

They include near-collisions between a Boeing 737 and a helicopter in Houston, a Boeing 777 and a small plane in San Francisco and an Airbus 319 and a Boeing 747 in Anchorage, Alaska.