National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Jennifer Homendy gave a robust rebuke of a protection authorization invoice that rolls again security enhancements. The board really useful the modifications after the January collision of a navy Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet close to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, killing 67 individuals.
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WASHINGTON — In an unusually harsh rebuke, the nation’s prime security investigator voiced considerations a few 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’s a security whitewash,” National Safety Transportation Board chair Jennifer Homendy informed reporters. “If it feels like I’m mad, I’m mad. This is shameful.”
Homendy stated the NTSB “vehemently” opposes a bit within the huge National Defense Authorization Act that might roll again security enhancements that had been really useful by the company after the collision of a navy Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet close to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, killing 67 individuals.
After the crash, the Defense Department agreed to require navy plane to broadcast their place utilizing a expertise generally known as ADS-B. But the NTSB warns the invoice’s language would create exemptions to the coverage — in impact, recreating circumstances 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 following accident, not inviting historical past to repeat itself by recreating the identical circumstances that had been in place on January twenty ninth,” Homendy stated.
Homendy laid out the NTSB’s considerations in a letter to the chairman and rating member of each the House Armed Services Committees and the Senate Committee on Armed Services. She stated no legislators had approached her in the course of the drafting of the NDAA, and he or she didn’t know who added the supply in query.
The committee leaders didn’t instantly reply to NPR’s request for remark.
But some lawmakers on Capitol Hill share the NTSB’s considerations.
“As drafted, the NDAA protects the established order, permitting navy 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-Kans.) and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), the leaders of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. “This comes as Pentagon knowledge reveals a spike in navy plane accidents since 2020. The households of the victims deserve accountability.”
The senators urged their colleagues in Congress to as an alternative undertake the bipartisan ROTOR Act, which might require plane operators to equip their fleets with ADS-B expertise and restrict exemptions for navy helicopters.
Family members of the victims of American Airlines Flight 5342 additionally expressed concern in regards to the language within the NDAA.
“The flying public and all those who make the most of our airspace deserve higher than what this invoice supplies,” stated Tim and Sheri Lilley, whose son, Sam, was the primary officer of Flight 5342, in a press release. “Congress now has a selection: strengthen this provision and shield the touring public or go away in place the identical vulnerabilities which have already value too many individuals their lives.”
