Ashley Halsey III: “The air traffic controllers in the Washington region, who direct more than 1.5 million flights, have made a record number of mistakes this year, triggering cockpit collision warning systems dozens of times. Errors recorded by air traffic controllers have increased by 51 percent nationwide, and the Federal Aviation Administration this week cautioned that warning systems aboard more than 9,000 planes may not be keeping track of all the nearby planes in busy airspace. The FAA wants to require software upgrades to ensure that the emergency units don’t make mistakes that “could compromise separation of air traffic and lead to subsequent midair collisions. Washington’s regional control facility recorded its 52nd error of the year on Christmas Eve when a controller mistakenly put two Southwest Airlines 737s approaching Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport on converging courses. The facility, known as the Potomac Terminal Radar Approach Control center, recorded 21 errors in 2009. The increase corresponds with what the acting director of the center described in an internal document as “a definite increase in sloppy or poor adherence to SOP and handbook procedures.” The record number of errors – locally and nationally – reflects many instances in which planes came too close but without risk of collision and some in which fatal consequences were narrowly averted.”