The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday it鈥檚 misleading for members of the House to say their package of aviation safety reforms would address that her agency made in January to prevent like the one last year near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people.
NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the House bill鈥檚 鈥渨atered-down鈥� requirements wouldn鈥檛 do enough to prevent a future tragedy, and wouldn鈥檛 be nearly as effective as a Senate bill that came up just of passing in the House earlier this week. The full NTSB followed up Thursday afternoon with a formal letter to two key House committees, saying that they can’t support the bill right now
鈥淲e can have disagreements over policy all day. But when something is sold as these are the NTSB recommendations and that is not factually accurate, we have a problem with that. Because now you鈥檙e using the NTSB and you鈥檙e using people who lost loved ones in terrible tragedies,鈥� Homendy said. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e using their pain to move your agenda forward.鈥�
The key concern of Homendy and the families of the people who died in the crash on Jan. 29, 2025, is that they believe all aircraft should be required to have that the NTSB has been recommending since 2008, which would allow the pilots to know more precisely where the traffic around them is flying. The Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Out systems that broadcast an aircraft’s location are already required around busy airports. It’s the ADS-B In systems that can receive data about the locations of other aircraft that isn’t yet standard.
The House bill would ask the Federal Aviation Administration to draft a rule to require the best locator technology instead of just requiring ADS-B In, and even when it does suggest that technology should be required, the bill exempts business jets and small planes in certain parts of the airspace. Homendy said the bill is also weak in other areas, such as limits on when the military will be able to turn those locator systems off and the steps they must take to ensure those systems are working.
House leaders defend their bill
The leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee declined to respond to Homendy’s criticism Thursday, but Reps. Sam Graves and Rick Larsen have said they believe the ALERT bill they crafted effectively addresses the 50 recommendations that NTSB made at the conclusion of their investigation into the collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter.
They defended their bill and pledged to work with the families, the Senate and the industry to develop the best solution as soon as possible. The committee will likely markup the bill within the next few weeks.
鈥淔rom the beginning, we have stressed the importance of getting this right, and we are confident that we will achieve that goal,鈥� Larsen and Graves said. House Speaker Mike Johnson also said he is committed to getting the bill done.
Victims’ families say they can’t support the bill as written
The NTSB released a of its recommendations and the House bill to highlight all the ways the bill falls short of fully addressing the needed changes.
Doug Lane, who lost his wife and son in the crash, and many of the other victims’ families said the House bill 鈥渋s not really a serious attempt to address the NTSB recommendations.鈥� He said the introduction of this bill just a few days before the vote on the ROTOR Act, which the Senate unanimously approved, seemed designed to 鈥渟cuttle鈥� that bill and send the ADS-B In recommendation into limbo to be considered in a lengthy rulemaking process.
Matt Collins, who lost his younger brother Chris in the disaster, said that the bill must require ADS-B In to be acceptable to the families.
鈥淎s far as the ALERT act 鈥� the way it鈥檚 written now, I can鈥檛 endorse the way its written now. It needs to include ADS-B In,鈥� Collins said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 non-negotiable for us as family members, extremely non-negotiable.鈥�
Missed warnings led to the crash
The NTSB cited and years of ignored warnings as the main causes of the crash, but Homendy has said that if both the plane and the Black Hawk had been equipped with ADS-B In and the systems had been turned on, the collision would have been prevented. The Army’s policy at the time of the crash mandated that its helicopters fly without that system on to conceal their locations, although the helicopter involved in this crash was on a training flight, not a sensitive mission.
But Homendy said the House seemed to pick and choose what they wanted to include from the NTSB recommendations.
鈥淲e were very explicit of what needed to occur,鈥� Homendy said. 鈥淲hen we issue a recommendation, those recommendations are aimed at preventing a tragedy from happening again. And if you鈥檙e just going to give us half a loaf, it鈥檚 not going to do it. We鈥檙e not gonna save lives.鈥�
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This story has been updated to correct the date of the Potomac River midair collision. It was Jan. 29, 2025, not 2005.
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