By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Feb 18 (Reuters) – The House of Representatives will consider aviation safety legislation on Monday, addressing dozens of recommendations by the National Transportation Safety Board, which probed a January 2025 collision between an American Airlines regional jet and Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed 67 people.
The U.S. Senate passed legislation unanimously in December known as the ROTOR Act that would require aircraft operators by the end of 2031 to equip their fleets with a safety system known as automatic-dependent-surveillance-broadcast system, or ADS-B.
The bill also boosts oversight of commercial jet and helicopter traffic and flight routes near commercial airports.
Leaders on the House Transportation and Armed Services committees are separately working to introduce a comprehensive House bill to address issues raised by the accident, a spokesperson for the transportation committee said.
Major aviation unions and many of the families of those killed on Wednesday urged the House to quickly pass the ROTOR Act.
Last month, the NTSB found systemic failures by the FAA led to the collision that was the worst U.S. aviation disaster since 2001.
The NTSB determined the accident was caused by the FAA’s decision to allow helicopters to travel close to the airport with no safeguards to separate them from airplanes and its failure to review data and act on recommendations to move helicopter traffic away from the airport.
The NTSB made more than 30 recommendations to the FAA, citing a series of failures before the Washington crash.
Since 2021, there had been 15,200 air separation incidents near Reagan airport between commercial airplanes and helicopters, including 85 close-call events.
The NTSB found issues with how the FAA handles traffic at Reagan. It also said the agency rejected advice to add hot spots to a helicopter route chart. FAA Chair Jennifer Homendy said the agency also did not review helicopter routes annually as required and had routes that were not designed to ensure proper separation.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio)
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