A House vote expected Tuesday will likely determine whether airline jets and every other plane flying around busy airports will be required to install locator technology that the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said would have prevented last year's tragic midair collision near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people.
The bill that already passed the Senate unanimously would require all aircraft be equipped with one system that can broadcast their locations and another one to receive data about the location of other aircraft. Only the system that broadcasts location is currently required.
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The families of the victims who died when an American Airlines jet collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter strongly support the measure, which would implement a change the NTSB has been recommending since 2008. The main pilots, flight attendants and aerospace workers unions have also endorsed the bill, known as the ROTOR act. But leaders of two key House committees quickly drafted an alternative bill over the last month to try to address all 50 of the recommendations the NTSB made — not just the locator technology.
Victims' families back Senate bill but industry goes the other way
The main Families of Flight 5342 group said that while the House bill includes a number of good reforms that should be considered, they can't support it as written. Everyone aboard the helicopter and the American Airlines jet flying from Wichita, Kansas, including the parents of Olympic figure skater Maxim Naumov and 26 other members of the figure skating community, died when the aircraft collided and plummeted into the icy Potomac River.
“The measure of legislation is not how many items it addresses but how well it addresses the most critical ones. On the central question of how quickly and effectively aircraft will be required to carry collision mitigation technology, the two bills are materially different,” the families group said Friday.
The Airlines for American trade group and the major general aviation groups that represent business jets and small plane owners — including the National Business Aviation Association and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association — all threw their support behind the House bill. But American does support the Senate bill.
On Monday, the Defense Department dropped its support for the ROTOR act that it endorsed in December because it would “create significant unresolved budgetary burdens and operational security risks affecting national defense activities.” The leaders of the House Transportation and Armed Services committees also urged their colleagues during debate to reject the bill because it isn't comprehensive and lacks any input from the House.
Competing bills take different approach to locator systems
The key difference between the bills is that the House version would not require both kinds of the proven Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast systems to be installed. Instead, the House bill would require the Federal Aviation Administration to investigate what technology might be best as part of a lengthy rulemaking process before requiring a solution. The House bill also covers many more aspects of the systemic failures the NTSB identified as causing the crash last Jan. 29.
The bipartisan group of Senate leaders behind the ROTOR act — led by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democrat Maria Cantwell — say their bill would be a good first step before drafting additional legislation.
Under a special process being used to fast-track the bill, the ROTOR act will need to receive more than two-thirds support to pass the House on Tuesday. The bill from House members isn't ready for a floor vote.
Rachel Feres, who is grieving the loss of her cousin and his wife and two young daughters in the crash, said it shouldn't be a debate between the two bills because both are needed, but ROTOR is ready to pass now to address crucial collision avoidance technology while lawmakers polish up the more comprehensive bill.
“The same risk that took our families’ lives is still there today. And so it is so vital that we address that as soon as possible,” Feres said.
Improving the collision warning system
Any plane flying around a major airport is already required to have an ADS-B Out system that continually broadcasts an aircraft’s location and speed installed. ADS-B In systems that can receive those signals and create a display showing pilots where all air traffic is located around them are not standard on airliners, though many general aviation pilots already use a portable receiver to display that information on an iPad.
The NTSB investigation showed that system would have provided significantly more warning to the pilots involved in the crash and would have allowed them to avoid the collision. A plane equipped with ADS-B In can give the pilot a detailed description of where other aircraft are whereas the current technology can only warn that traffic is in the area.
“The question is: How many more people need to die before we act?” NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy asked in a post on X not long before the House bill was released last week.
“We have an obligation to fix what went wrong on January 29th. Not only must we do this for the 67 people who died, we must do this for all those who lost their lives in accidents we’ve investigated. We must do this for their families. We must do this for future generations... lives we can still save.”