Senate Aviation Bill Seeks to Prevent Helicopter-Airline Collisions
WASHINGTON — A Senate committee that oversees aviation safety is considering legislation intended to prevent the kind of collision that killed 67 people at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in January.
The collision resulted from an American Airlines regional jet slamming into an Army Black Hawk helicopter that was flying higher than its authorized altitude.
The bill, S. 1985, introduced this month by seven Democratic senators, would require the Federal Aviation Administration to review helicopter and airline operations near major airports with a potential for limiting the helicopter flights.
It also would require use of advanced collision warning technology and compel new FAA investigations after fatal passenger airline accidents.
In hearings earlier this year, members of Congress expressed outrage about the number of near-misses at Reagan Airport that were overlooked without FAA regulatory intervention.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said the collision “exposed critical gaps in aviation safety oversight.”
Cantwell said S. 1985 “closes dangerous loopholes that allowed aircraft to operate without essential safety technology, mandates modern surveillance systems that enhance pilot awareness of nearby aircraft, and ensures the FAA finally acts on the data instead of ignoring it.”
The safety technology she mentioned refers to ADS-B, a tracking system that uses transponders to give air traffic controllers detailed information about the altitude, speed and location of nearby aircraft. Its automated alarms warn of aircraft approaching too closely.
The Army Black Hawk helicopter was equipped with ADS-B but it was not operating during the routine training mission when it collided with the American Airlines jet.
Part of the evidence discussed in congressional hearings was a National Transportation Safety Board report released in March.
It said that since 2021, there were more than 15,200 incidents of commercial airplanes and helicopters at Reagan Airport passing within one mile of lateral separation and less than 400 feet of vertical separation. Eighty-five of the incidents were classified by the FAA as close calls.
The International Civil Aviation Organization sets global standards for vertical separation for commercial aircraft, typically requiring a minimum of 1,000 feet.
Families of the people killed in the Jan. 29 collision said in a statement that the Senate bill “marks a meaningful step forward in aviation safety.”
They are suing the FAA and the Army in lawsuits claiming hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
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