Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz said Tuesday that he will introduce a bill that would force changes to the way the military uses helicopters around congested airports, including prohibiting the Army from turning off location-transmitting technologies such as the one under investigation as part of an inquiry into the January midair collision near Washington that killed 67 people.
Cruz’s announcement comes a day before the kickoff of a three-day federal fact-finding hearing into a January midair collision between a commercial airplane and an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The hearing will be conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board, an independent agency probing the accident.
The technology Cruz’s bill seeks to mandate, known as ADS-B Out, was not transmitting on the helicopter involved in the disaster. The NTSB is still investigating whether the crew had switched off the technology — which allows air traffic controllers to see an aircraft’s speed, altitude and location — or if it was simply not operational. Its final report on the disaster’s causes isn’t expected until next year.
“We should not tolerate special exceptions for military training flights operating in congested airspace, no matter the circumstances. Any aircraft flying near commercial traffic must fully adhere to safety standards,” Cruz said during a press conference debuting the bill. Cruz was accompanied by some of the family of those who died in the crash as well as officials investigating the catastrophe, including NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy.
The Army’s propensity to operate without the technology enabled for flights in the Washington area has drawn sharp scrutiny from Congress since the crash. At the time of the accident, the Army’s policy was to keep its helicopter transponders off during sensitive or classified missions with commander approval, according to Brig. Gen. Matthew Braman, who testified at a March Senate hearing on the crash.
In a statement in response to a New York Times report earlier this year regarding the events leading up to the fatal January crash, the Army said it “cautions against speculating about potential causes or contributing factors prior to the” NTSB completing its investigation, and further stated it was “irresponsible to take snippets of information and present them in a way that casts blame on any individual or group.”
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Author: Dillon B
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