The Nation - News from April 9, 1987

Incidents of air traffic controllers allowing planes to fly closer than is allowed have increased sharply in recent months despite efforts to reduce the number of such errors, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The number of so-called “operational errors” by controllers jumped by 18% during the first three months of the year at a time when agency planners had set a goal of reducing such errors by at least 2%, FAA officials said.