Grieving families press Congress on aviation safety reforms after midair collision near DC

Key senators and the families of the 67 dead in an airliner collision with an Army helicopter near the nation's capital are convinced that advanced aircraft locator systems recommended by experts for nearly two decades would have prevented last year's tragedy. But it remains unclear if a bill will pass Congress requiring the systems around busy airports.

The Senate Commerce Committee is planning a hearing Thursday to highlight why the National Transportation Safety Board has been recommending since 2008 that 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. The hearing will review all 50 of the NTSB's recommendations to prevent another midair collision like that of Jan. 29, 2025.

All aboard the helicopter and the American Airlines jet flying from Wichita, Kansas, including 28 members of the figure skating community, died died when the aircraft collided and plummeted into the icy Potomac River.

The entire Senate already unanimously approved the bill that would require all aircraft flying around busy airports to have both kinds of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast systems installed. However, leaders of the key House committees seem to want to craft their own comprehensive bill addressing all the NTSB recommendations instead of immediately passing what's known as the ROTOR act. The ADS-B out systems continually broadcast an aircraft's location and speed and have been required since 2020. But ADS-B in systems that can receive those signals and create a display showing pilots were all air traffic is located around them are not standard.

If the American Airlines jet had been equipped with one of the ADS-B in systems that can receive location data, the NTSB and the victims' families and key lawmakers say, the pilots may have been able to pull up in time to avoid the Black Hawk that inexplicably climbed into the plane's path.

The receiving systems should have provided nearly a minute's warning along with an indication of the helicopter's position instead of the 19-second warning the pilots received with the existing collision-avoidance system on the plane. But for that to work the helicopter's ADS-B out system that's supposed to broadcast its location would have to be turned on and working correctly, which wasn't the case on the night of the crash.

Tragedy could have been prevented

But these locator systems are one of the measures that might have been able to overcome all the systemic problems and mistakes the NTSB identified in the disaster. That's why NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy — who will be the only witness at the hearing — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and all of the Senate endorsed it.

“This seems like a no-brainer, right? Especially when this is not a new thing that they’re proposing,” said Amy Hunter, whose cousin Peter Livingston died on the flight with his wife and two young daughters.

Afterward, the FAA made several changes including prohibiting helicopters from flying along the route where the crash occurred anytime a plane is landing on the secondary runway at Reagan National Airport.

The crash anniversary and NTSB hearing on the causes of the crash made recent weeks challenging for victims' families. And now the Olympics are reminding Hunter and others that their loved ones — like young Everly and Alydia Livingston — will never have a chance to realize their dreams of competing for a gold medal.

Cost concerns for plane owners

The biggest stumbling block is cost concerns. Upgrading some airline jets might cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, placing an expensive burden on some — especially regional airlines with tighter margins like the one that flew the jet that collided with the Army helicopter. Some worry whether general aviation pilots could afford the upgrades, too.

Any plane that’s more than a decade old likely doesn’t have either of these systems installed while most planes newer than that would at least have an ADS-B out system that broadcasts their location.

But roughly three quarters of the pilots of business jets and smaller single-engine Cessnas and Bonanzas use portable devices that only cost several hundred dollars made by companies like ForeFlight that can tap into this location data and display the information about nearby aircraft on an iPad. So it doesn't appear the legislation would create a significant expense for them.

Tim Lilley, a pilot himself, said having both these locator systems would have saved the life of his son Sam, who was copilot of the airliner, and everyone else who died. He said small plane owners have an affordable option, but even the expensive upgrades to large planes would be worth it.

“If those recommendations had been fully realized, this accident wouldn’t have happened,” Lilley said. “I don’t know what value we put on the human life, but 67 lives would still be here today.”