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Senators from both parties pushed for changes to a massive defense bill Thursday after crash investigators and victims’ families warned that the legislation would undo key safety reforms stemming from collisions between a plane and a plane. Army helicopter over Washington, DC, killing 67 people.
head of National Transportation Safety Board Investigating the crash, a group of family members of the victims and senators on the Commerce Committee said the bill introduced by the House on Wednesday would make America’s skies less safe. He said it would allow the military to operate essentially the same way as it did before the January crash, which was the deadliest in more than two decades.
Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell and Republican committee chair Sen. ted cruz They filed two amendments Thursday to remove worrisome helicopter security provisions and replace them with a bill introduced last summer to strengthen the requirements, but it is unclear whether Republican leadership will allow changing the National Defense Authorization Act at this stage because it would delay its passage.
The senators said, “We owe it to families to put real security reforms into law, not to create huge loopholes for the Department of Defense to exploit.”
Right now, the bill includes exceptions that would allow military helicopters to fly through the crowded airspace around the nation’s capital without using a critical system called ADS-B to broadcast their locations, as they did before the January collision. The Federal Aviation Administration began requiring it in March. NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy called the bill a “significant safety blow” that is inviting a repeat of that disaster.
“This represents an unacceptable risk to flying people, commercial and military aircraft, crews and area residents,” Homendy said. “This is an unimaginable dismissal of our investigation and also of the 67 families…who lost loved ones in a tragedy that was completely preventable. It is shameful.”
management committee majority leader john thune He said he is looking at the concerns, but thinks they can be addressed by quickly passing an aviation security bill proposed by Cruz and Cantwell last summer.
“I think that will address people’s concerns about that provision, and hopefully – we’ll see if we can find a way to move forward to get that bill done,” said Thune, a South Dakota Republican.
The Army had used a national security waiver before the accident to circumvent FAA security requirements on the grounds that they were concerned about the security risks of disclosing the locations of their helicopters. Tim and Sherry Lilley, whose son Sam was a first officer on an American Airlines jet, said the bill merely adds “a window dressing fix that will continue to allow requirements to be set aside with nothing more than a cursory risk assessment.”
Homendy said it would be ridiculous to entrust the military with assessing safety risks when they are not experts, and that neither the Army nor the FAA looked into the 85 close calls around Ronald Reagan National Airport in the years before the crash. He said the Army doesn’t know how to assess such a risk, and added that no one who wrote the bill bothered to consult the NTSB experts who do know.
The White House and the military did not immediately respond to questions about these security concerns Thursday. But earlier this week Trump made it clear that he wants to sign the National Defense Authorization Act because it advances many of his priorities and provides a 3.8% pay increase for many military members.
The Senate is expected to consider the bill next week and it appears unlikely that any final changes will be made. But Congress is going on recess at the end of the week, and the defense bill is considered something that will have to pass by the end of the year.