the cause of these frightening close calls. reporter: the close calls involve air traffic controllers on each end of the country. may 9th in houston, united flight 601 was departing from vancouver on runway 9 as united flight 437 was leaving from mexico city on runway 15. the controller apparently made a serious mistake. 601, thank you, heading 340. instead of telling the vancouver flight to turn left he told him to turn right into the path of the other plane. the controller then quickly realized his mistake. united 601, stop your climbing and stop your turn, united 601. reporter: the planes came 400 feet vertically, .8 miles laterally. seconds away from disaster. arriving united 737 flew right over the top of a departing express jet regional flight that had been cleared for takeoff on an intersecting runway. do you have him in sight? maintain visual. oh, yeah, he s real close.
there have been at least three reports of passenger jets ending up on a collision course. the latest a near miss involving two united planes over houston. reporter randy wallace is live in houston with the latest. what s going on, randy? near disaster on the sky happened on may the 9th around 10:00 p.m. here at bush intercontinents airport in houston. at the time both planes involved had about 150 passengers on board. now, according to the federal aviation administration. united flight 601 destined for vancouver was on runway 9. united 437 was headed to mexico. after the flight to mexico was airborne, and air traffic controller reportedly told the vancouver flight to turn right instead of left. that error, the faa says, caused two planes to basically cross directly on top of each other within a second from impact. the air traffic controller
takeoff. that means really seconds away from a collision. it s at least the third near collision that we re hearing about just this week, and it s news that could make anyone traveling this memorial day weekend nervous. aviation correspondent renee marsh is following all the latest developments. what do we know about this one, renee? reporter: we re still getting the details but the faa telling us here at kr cnn these two planes came with within a mile of each other and they were about 400 feet apart vertically. if you were a passenger on this plane, you do not want to be in that situation. we are hearing about another situation of two passenger planes getting too close for comfort. 601 turn right turn. reporter: two more passenger planes get too close in the sky. on may 9, united flight 601 and united 437 took off from bush intercontinental air 30 poporta. shortly after takeoff flight 601 is told to turn right putting it
planes to turn again, avoiding, narrowly avoiding disaster. listen to what it sounded like. united 437, turn right heading 180 and maintain 300 there. turn right immediately. united 601, stop your turn, climb, stop your turn for united 601. the fourth we ve learned about just this week. stop your turn, stop your turn. embattled va secretary eric shinseki fighting to keep his job and promised to fix delays in care that may be costing veterans their lives. it could be a tough battle for the beleaguered ex-general because some high-profile democrats now are demanding that he step down. here s chief congressional correspondent dana bash. reporter: christine and john, va secretary eric shinseki was summoned to a closed-door meeting on capitol hill yesterday afternoon, not to meet with a republican, but a frustrated democrat. and afterwards, shinseki told
planes to turn again. listen to this. united 437, turn right heading 180 and turn, maintain 3,000 there. stop, turn right immediately. united 601, stop your turn. stop your climb, stop your turn for united 601. the faa claims it has taken steps to prevent this from happening again, but wow, those planes were close, and this keeps on happening. it just raises so many questions about the system. sure does, sure does. all right, it s not just republicans calling for the firing of eric shinseki, the embattled va secretary. he s promising to fix the deadly treatment delays that are costing veterans their lives. but now, some high-profile democrats are saying this scandal should cost him his job. here s our chief congressional correspondent this morning, dana bash. reporter: christine and john, va secretary eric shinseki was summoned to a closed-door meeting on capitol hill yesterday afternoon, not to meet with a republican but a frustrated democrat. and afterwards, shinseki to