US aviation officials have issued a temporary suspension of "opposite direction" runway operations as a direct result of investigations into the near miss of three aircraft on runways at Washington Airport last week.
FAA acting administrator Michael Huerta said investigations had shown there was "no standard protocol" for a switch from one-way traffic to two-way traffic.
He said that lack of a standard procedure in the switch was a likely cause of the "loss of separation" incident last week.
Flights came dangerously close to each other when incoming and outgoing traffic at DCA switched directions.
He also said that front line managers appear to be juggling administrative tasks in addition to their tower operations duties and that would need to be changed.
"We need to be sure that they are solely focused on the operations in the facility and not handling administrative duties" during busy times," he wrote in a statement.
Huerta said he was putting the temporary suspension of these operations in place because of an "abundance of caution".
He said that the FAA would have protocols in place to resume the operations in a month.
by Gretchen Kelly, TravelMole US
