The head of the Federal Aviation Administration spoke to Congress at a hearing Thursday about the airborne collision in Washington, D.C. It killed 67 people That the agency must do more to ensure that flight remains safe.
Similar helicopter-air-airplane reviews aimed at identifying safety threats at other airports with airplane crowds should close in a few weeks, said Chris Rocheleau, the agency's representative manager.
During the hearing, the head of the National Road Safety Commission and members of the Congress once again questioned how the FAA had not noticed. Amazing number of closing calls Addressed the issue before the January collision between an Army helicopter and a jet liner near Ronald Reagan National Airport. Potomac River Clash It was the most deadly plane crash in the country This is the first time since November 2001.
“We need to do better,” Rochero said. “We need to identify trends. We need to be smarter about how we use our data, and we need to do them when we take corrective actions.”
How FAA uses AI
The FAA uses AI to delve into millions of reports it collects to assess other locations in busy helicopter traffic, including Boston, New York, Baltimore Washington, Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and along the Gulf Coast. Rochero promised to take action immediately if any risk was found.
The investigator has it Emphasized the 85 close call Safety issues should be rising around Reagan Airport, three years before the crash. Rocheleau told the Aviation Subcommittee of the Commercial, Science and Transportation Commission that all the close calls had been investigated and all data had been reviewed previously, but this surprising trend was overlooked.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said there is clearly a problem with identifying trends in the data the FAA collects.
Daily Crofton, whose brother Casey Crofton died in the collision, attended the hearing.
“We were surprised at the lapse of safety protocols that led to this crash,” he later said in a statement.
The collision alarm continues to go off
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said he learned on March 1 that Secret Service and the US Navy would be testing anti-drone technology that would cause a crash warning rash on planes around Reagan Airport, causing anti-drone technology to test similar frequencies to those used in plane warning systems. Cruz said it happened despite a warning from the FAA about doing it.
“This is very disturbing from receiving emergency cockpit alerts that have caused the Secret Service and the Pentagon accidentally causing multiple flights and recommend avoidance actions just a month after 67 people died during their approach to DCA (Reagan Airport),” Cruz said.
Helicopter traffic around Reagan National has been restricted since January when planes use the same runway, with American Airlines planes crashing when they collided with the helicopters approaching. At the request of the NTSB, the FAA It is forever prohibited Under most circumstances, that particular helicopter route. If the helicopter is using the route, the plane is prohibited from taking off or landing on that runway.
The Army had not broadcast the helicopter location yet.
US Army Air Brighead. General Matthew Braman admitted as of Thursday morning that helicopters were flying across the country's capital in a critical system that broadcast locations during most missions, as helicopters appear to be still sensitive.
Cruz called it “shocking and deeply unacceptable.”
Rocheroe then said that the FAA immediately needs to broadcast the location for all aircraft flying near Reagan National. The “ADS-B Out Data” is designed to allow air traffic controllers to update and track aircraft positions every second.
Before that announcement, an exception in Washington's outer space allowed the military and other government agencies to fly without sending, or in a mode with fewer information sent to avoid broadcasting potentially sensitive missions to the public.
Former Black Hawk pilot Tim Lilly, the father of airliner co-pilot Sam Lilly, said he was disappointed that the Army has not taken any easy steps to improve safety in meetings with Braman, including turning on the locator system, and turning on the locator system, except for the use of the old Black Hawks on routes around Washington.
“I was frustrated with the lack of accountability. The Army still doesn't want to say they've done anything wrong,” said Lily, who flew helicopter routes around the capital in the 1990s as part of a 20-year army career and now flew a private jet.
Is the system working too?
Homedy also said it is important to inspect the transmission equipment to make sure it actually works. The helicopters involved in this collision had not transmitted location data for 730 days. When NTSB checked the helicopters for the remaining units after the crash, we found eight units of helicopters that had not been sent since 2023.
Additionally, Homedy said he was not sure what he was doing with the close call reports the Army received, or whether the helicopter was monitoring whether he violated altitude restrictions during the flight, like a flight that collided with a jet liner. She said most of the safety conversations at the battalion level focused on “OSHA slips, travel, waterfalls.”
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Associated Press Writer Tara COPP contributed to this report from Washington, DC
