OPS12IA849

A hearback/readback error on the part of the tower traffic management coordinator, who did not understand the request being made by the approach control area supervisor and then communicated that misunderstanding to the local controllers. Contributing to the incident was the lack of standard coordination procedures between the tower and approach control for temporary runway changes and the accepted practice of operations supervisors being distracted by non-operational duties while responsible for tower operations and interfacility coordination.

The airport had been using runway 1 for arrivals and departures all day. Because of thunderstorms south of the airport, the approach control area supervisor for Mount Vernon (MTV) attempted to coordinate with the airport tower supervisor to stop departures from runway 1 and temporarily land arrivals on runway 19, opposite to the traffic flow in use. According to the airport’s standard operating procedures, requests for runway changes must be approved by a tower supervisor, but the tower supervisor was unable to take the call because he was on a different phone line and distracted by administrative duties. Instead, a traffic management coordinator took the coordination call. A misunderstanding occurred between the MTV supervisor and the traffic management coordinator. The coordinator stated that she had missed the supervisor's reference to use of runway 19, and instead thought arrivals would be continuing to use runway 1, only with reduced spacing. The coordinator relayed the incorrect information to the local controllers responsible for the runways. The local controllers subsequently released two departures from runway 1 and both flights lost required separation with the first arriving airplane inbound from the northwest to land on runway 19.

On July 31, 2012, at 1408 eastern daylight time, losses of required air traffic control separation occurred involving Republic Airlines flight 3329, an Embraer 170 regional jet arriving at Washington-Reagan National Airport (DCA) from Portland, Maine; Chautauqua Airlines flight 3071, an Embraer 135 regional jet departing from DCA to Columbus, Ohio; and Republic Airlines flight 3467, an Embraer 170 regional jet departing DCA to Kansas City, Missouri. The call sign for the two Republic Airlines flights was "Brickyard." All three aircraft were operating on instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plans under Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations part 121. There was no damage to any of the aircraft, and no injuries to passengers or crew. History of Flight According to the DCA facility operations log, runway 1 had been the primary runway for arrival and departure aircraft since 0548 that morning. At 1400:34, the Potomac Terminal Radar Approach Control (PCT) Mount Vernon (MTV) supervisor called the DCA supervisor's line. Because the DCA supervisor was occupied with administrative duties on a different phone line, a traffic management coordinator (TMC1) answered the call. The MTV supervisor stated that PCT was having, “…a problem getting these guys into the airport, I was wondering if I could flush them all into [runway] one nine." TMC1 advised that there were eight departures waiting to depart. However, she noted that some of the flights were encountering departure delays and could not leave, so there was not a lot of demand at the runway. After further discussion, TMC1 advised the MTV supervisor that she would call him back and the call terminated. At 1401:50, TMC1 called the MTV supervisor and told him to, "…go ahead and run them in quickly." When interviewed, TMC1 stated that she had not heard the MTV supervisor’s request to use runway 19, and thought he wanted to decrease the arrival spacing on the final for runway 1. The MTV supervisor asked if there were any other departures, and TMC1 responded that there was one waiting. The MTV supervisor then went offline briefly to coordinate the change with the Ojaay sector controller. He returned to the line a few seconds later to implement the change with DCA. In the meantime, a second DCA traffic management coordinator (TMC2) had taken over the call. The MTV supervisor said, "We’re gonna start running them in to the south, get all those guys (inbound aircraft) flushed in real quick..." TMC2 responded, "You know that’s fine – whatever you’ve got, no problems with that, run them (inbound aircraft) in." The MTV supervisor responded, "I appreciate it" and the call ended. The DCA local controller instructed CHQ3071 to line up and wait (move onto the runway and wait for takeoff clearance) on runway 1 at 1405:09, and cleared the flight for takeoff at 1405:45. A few seconds later, the local controller instructed RPA3467 to line up and wait on runway 1. At 1406:46, she directed CHQ3071 to change to departure frequency. RPA3467 was cleared for takeoff at 1406:58. At 1407:12, RPA3329 contacted the DCA local controller, stating that the inbound aircraft was, "...on the river." The local controller began to reply, "Brickyard…" and then stopped. After a pair of unrelated transmissions from other aircraft that she did not acknowledge, at 1407:27 the local controller transmitted, "And Brickyard 30…Brickyard 3329 are you with me?" The pilot replied, "Yeah, I’m with you on the river." At 1407:32, the local controller instructed RPA3329 to turn south heading 180, and the pilot acknowledged. At 1407:37, the MTV supervisor called the DCA supervisor, who had no knowledge of the traffic manager’s previous discussion with the MTV supervisor, and asked, "Hey, what are you guys doing launching north? Yeah, remember?" The DCA supervisor responded, "Yeah...uh." According to information provided during his interview, the supervisor immediately went to the local control position to attempt to resolve the problem. At 1407:42, the local controller provided a traffic advisory to RPA3329, advising the crew, "...traffic just ahead and to your left, a CRJ departing through 2,200." The pilot acknowledged the traffic, stating, "We got him, 3329", and continuing, "You have an altitude for us?" The controller did not acknowledge the altitude request. At 1407:54, the local controller transmitted, "Brickyard...Brickyard 3467 traffic 2 mi...uh traffic at your 11:00 and 2 miles is a 170 at 1,800 southbound." The pilot responded, "Brickyard 3467 we’re looking." At 1408:05, the MTV supervisor again came on the line, stating, "tower don’t launch anybody else, please," but there was no response. At 1408:11, the local controller instructed RPA3329 to turn right heading 020, and at 1408:18 amended the heading to 090. The pilot acknowledged the instructions, continuing, "Is 2,000 [feet] good for you here?" The controller did not respond to the question. According to information provided by the supervisor, he had directed the local controller to issue those headings but intended the instructions for RPA3467, the second departing aircraft, not RPA3329. He did not immediately recognize that the local controller had misunderstood his direction because both aircraft were Republic Airlines flights, he heard her instruct a Republic flight to turn, and he was uncertain about the flight numbers of each aircraft. At 1408:20, the MTV supervisor again called the DCA supervisor line. The DCA TMC responsible for the initial coordination about using runway 19 answered the call, saying "I thought you were going to run them in on 1, I didn’t think 19." The MTV supervisor responded, "No, 19, I said it over and over again." The TMC responded, "Oh no, I didn’t hear 19, I’m sorry about that. I said just run them in on 1 – that we didn’t have any you know [unintelligible]..." The MTV supervisor then stated, "...no more departures." The TMC responded, "Yeah, we stopped them, we stopped them – it was miscommunication." At 1408:40, the local controller instructed RPA3467 to contact Potomac departure and the pilot acknowledged. At 1409:19, the local controller stated, "And Brickyard 3329 you can uh contact uh stand by." At 1409:30, she transmitted, "...Brickyard 3329 turn right heading 180." The pilot acknowledged, and continued, "We were cleared the river back there – what happened?" The local controller did not respond because she was instructing an aircraft that had been holding on runway 1 awaiting takeoff clearance to exit the runway. At 1410:30, the pilot of RPA3329 asked, "What’s your plans for us?" The local controller responded, "Brickyard 3329 standby we’re...we’re trying to figure this out too, stand by." At 1410:44, the local controller transmitted, "All right, Brickyard 3329 climb maintain 2,000 on heading 180 and contact final approach on 124.75." The pilot replied, "All right we’re at 2 [thousand feet] on a 180 heading, 124.75, good day." The local controller then issued additional taxi instructions to the aircraft exiting runway 1. At 1411:28, RPA3329 returned to the frequency, asking, "Tower you got something else for [Brickyard] 3329? Nobody’s answering [frequency] 2475 [124.75]." The controller then amended the frequency to 124.7 and RPA3329 again switched back to Potomac TRACON. At 1412:14, the local controller advised all aircraft waiting to take off that there was a temporary stop on all departures. At 1412:22, RPA3396 contacted the tower inbound on the visual approach to runway 19, and became the first aircraft to land on that runway. Aircraft continued to land on runway 19, normal operations gradually resumed, and because of a change in the wind direction and speed that favored runway 19, DCA continued to use runway 19 for the remainder of the shift. At 1412:50, the DCA supervisor called the MTV supervisor, saying, "..