NTSB warns that defense bill could undermine aviation safety changes after DCA crash

WASHINGTON — In an unusually harsh rebuke, the nation’s prime security investigator voiced issues a couple of provision within the protection coverage invoice earlier than Congress on Wednesday, warning that it could undermine aviation security enhancements made after a lethal mid-air collision in January.

“It is a security whitewash,” Nationwide Security Transportation Board chair Jennifer Homendy instructed reporters. “If it seems like I am mad, I’m mad. That is shameful.”

Homendy stated the NTSB “vehemently” opposes a bit within the large Nationwide Protection Authorization Act that may roll again security enhancements that had been beneficial by the company after the collision of a army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airways regional jet close to Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide Airport, killing 67 folks.

After the crash, the Protection Division agreed to require army plane to broadcast their place utilizing a expertise often called ADS-B. However the NTSB warns the invoice’s language would create exemptions to the coverage — in impact, recreating situations that had been in place on the time of the DCA collision, which was the nation’s deadliest aviation catastrophe in additional than 20 years.

“We must be working collectively in partnership to stop the subsequent accident, not inviting historical past to repeat itself by recreating the identical situations that had been in place on January twenty ninth,” Homendy stated.

Homendy laid out the NTSB’s issues in a letter to the chairman and rating member of each the Home Armed Companies Committees and the Senate Committee on Armed Companies. She stated no legislators had approached her throughout the drafting of the NDAA, and she or he didn’t know who added the availability in query.

In an announcement, the committee leaders defended the language within the invoice.

“All of us care deeply about and are totally dedicated to making sure aviation security,” stated U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Chairman of the Senate Armed Companies Committee, Rating Member Jack Reed (D-RI), Home Armed Companies Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Rating Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) in an announcement.

They are saying the invoice would require any helicopter conducting coaching missions round Washington, D.C. must present warning of its place to plane within the space (although it doesn’t particularly require using ADS-B), and that the Secretary of a army division would want to obtain concurrence from the Secretary of Transportation previous to waiving this requirement.

Nonetheless, some lawmakers on Capitol Hill share the NTSB’s issues.

“As drafted, the NDAA protects the established order, permitting army plane to maintain flying in DC airspace below totally different guidelines and with outdated transmission necessities,” stated a joint assertion from Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Unwell.), the leaders of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. “This comes as Pentagon information exhibits a spike in army plane accidents since 2020. The households of the victims deserve accountability.”

The senators urged their colleagues in Congress to as a substitute undertake the bipartisan ROTOR Act, which might require plane operators to equip their fleets with ADS-B expertise and restrict exemptions for army helicopters.

Relations of the victims of American Airways Flight 5342 additionally expressed concern concerning the language within the NDAA.

“The flying public and all people who make the most of our airspace deserve higher than what this invoice offers,” stated Tim and Sheri Lilley, whose son, Sam, was the primary officer of Flight 5342, in an announcement. “Congress now has a alternative: strengthen this provision and defend the touring public or go away in place the identical vulnerabilities which have already price too many individuals their lives.”