Thursday Senators burned some aviation leaders during a Hearing It caused 67 deaths in relation to an airborne collision between American Airlines commercial jets and the Army Black Hawk helicopters in January.
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), chair of the subcommittee on aviation, space and innovation; Preliminary report In his opening statement from the National Transportation Safety Board, he notes that over three years, Ronald Reagan near Washington National Airport, the agency's investigations have discovered thousands of intimate incidents.
“Specifically, certain safety measures that could have been simply implemented since the crash have not yet been so.”
“The 67 lives lost on January 29th were filmed prematurely in an accident that should have been avoided by all the signs,” Moran said.
He called the statistics in the NTSB preliminary report “Alarming.”
“In 13 years, not a month has passed without at least one 'close call' between helicopters and commercial jets operating in DCA,” Moran continued. “There were 85 incidents between October 2021 and December 2024 where the lateral separation between the commercial jet and the helicopter was less than 1,500 feet and the vertical separation was less than 200 feet.”
The NTSB report states that in the same period, of 944,179 operations, 15,214 were considered “air collision events” between commercial planes and helicopters. Report These intimate calls were defined as instances where two aircraft were “less than 1” [nautical mile]or lateral separation of approximately 6,000 feet and vertical separation of “less than 400 feet.”
The NTSB also found that “helicopters operating the east coastline of the Potomac River have a vertical separation of about 75 feet from the plane approaching runway 33, reducing this distance when the helicopter operates farther from the coastline.”
NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendy told the Senator “There is virtually no error.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giclzkccr8g
Chris Rochelow, acting manager of the Federal Aviation Administration, was pressed for how the agency failed to address safety concerns.
“How did you get to this point?” Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash). asked Rocherrow. “It's like a string of errors here.”
“This was when the NTSB told us today that it was really unsafe, did you ever say this was an agreed and safe route? It was an unbearable risk,” she said.
Rochero explained that the airspace has been redesigned several times in the past.
“When I talk about how I got there, I think I'm going to learn more about it through research,” he replied.
Rochero said the FAA's air traffic system needs to be “modernized as quickly as possible.”
“I can assure people who fly. It's safe to fly. We have the safest and most complicated systems in the world. And it's safe to fly. And I say that the air traffic system is desperately needed to upgrade,” he said.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) asked U.S. Army Aviation Director General Matthew Braman about the controversial policies that allow flights to operate with the main safety system, an automatic dependency monitoring broadcast.
“I think it's shocking and deeply unacceptable, and I would like to encourage the Army to reconsider that policy right now and revisit it today,” Cruz told Braman. “If the Army chooses not to do so, I have a high level of confidence that Congress will pass the law, requiring you to revisit the policy.”
The victim's families also attended the Senate hearing.
Daily Crafton, 40-year-old Casey's brother, is said by her father, the husband of three who died in the collision. Daily caller He said he was “shocked” at the end of safety.
“Specifically, certain safety measures that could have been simply implemented since the crash have not yet been so. Accountability has not yet been taken by the responsible parties,” he said.
Tracy Brameyer, a partner at the Clifford Law office, who represents the family, said “it is entirely unacceptable to not share details about nearby conflicts, or to conduct a trend analysis of the history of such incidents, or take action to address the occurrence of other numbers.”
“All entities that have not taken action must be accountable to the victim's family and the flying public,” Brammeier added.
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