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Revised House aviation safety bill wins NTSB support, but victims’ families demand tougher timelines

By The Associated Press
Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., speaks during a news conference to discuss aviation safety reform legislation, including the ROTOR Act, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

A revised version of the House’s aviation safety bill now has the backing of the NTSB, but most of the families of the 67 victims of last year’s midair collision near Washington, D.C., still want to see tougher requirements to ensure the reforms are completed.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the Alert Act now addresses its recommendation to require all aircraft flying around busy airports to have key locator systems that would allow the pilots to know more precisely where the traffic around them is flying. The NTSB has been recommending the systems since 2008.

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News

House fails to pass bill requiring aircraft locator systems after deadly Potomac midair collision

By The Associated Press
Family members of the people who were killed in the midair collision near Washington Reagan National Airport watch a video before a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing at Capitol Hill, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

The House failed to approve a bill Tuesday that was crafted after last year’s tragic midair collision near Washington D.C. to require all aircraft flying around busy airports to have key locator systems to prevent such crashes. The collision of an airliner and an Army helicopter killed 67 people.

The National Transportation Safety Board has been recommending such Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast systems to be installed since 2008. The bill that already passed the Senate would have required aircraft to be equipped with a system that can receive data about the locations of other aircraft. The complementary ADS-B Out system that broadcasts an aircraft’s location is already required.

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News

Sens. Warner and Kaine promise bill to reduce flights at Reagan National

By Scott McCaffrey
Boats and the U.S. Park Police helicopter search the Potomac River the morning after the mid-air collision and crash (staff photo by James Jarvis)

Virginia’s two U.S. senators say they will try again to reduce air traffic and take other steps to address safety concerns at Reagan National Airport.

Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine are throwing their support behind the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) final report into the January 2025 midair collision near the airport

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News

Grieving families press Congress on aviation safety reforms after midair collision

By The Associated Press
An airplane takes off behind the control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, on the anniversary of the Potomac River mid-air collision between an American Airlines passenger plane and an Army Blackhawk helicopter, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

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 Congress will pass a bill requiring every plane and helicopter to use them around every busy airport.

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News

Responders recall a mission of recovery and grief a year after the midair collision

By The Associated Press
Metropolitan Police Department diver Robert Varga poses for a portrait, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

WASHINGTON (AP) — For some, it was the children’s luggage and small ice skates that became indelible memories of the night a passenger plane and a helicopter collided over the murky Potomac River. Others remember boats navigating debris and shallow water to bring victims’ bodies ashore. And there was the suddenness: people seconds from landing, gone.

Families of those on board American Airlines Flight 5342 and an Army Black Hawk helicopter are marking Thursday as the one-year anniversary of the deadliest plane crash on U.S. soil in more than 20 years. Another group is reliving that night and the days, weeks and months that followed: the emergency responders who dove repeatedly into the river with nearly zero visibility, braving cold water, jet fuel and jagged wreckage in the hope of rescuing survivors.

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News

FAA head pledges no rollback of D.C. airspace safety measures amid defense bill fight

By The Associated Press and ARLnow.com
FILE - Salvage crews work on recovering wreckage near the site in the Potomac River of a mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and a Black Hawk helicopter at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday he won’t allow operations in the airspace over the nation’s capital to revert back to the way they were before January’s deadly aircraft collision near Reagan National Airport.

Administrator Bryan Bedford told the House aviation subcommittee he won’t forget the 67 people who died when an airliner collided with an Army helicopter over the Potomac River.

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News

New FAA charts further limit where helicopters can fly over Arlington

By Dan Egitto
A helicopter in the sky over Arlington (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

New route charts from the Federal Aviation Administration further restrict helicopter traffic around Reagan National Airport, reducing where the aircraft can fly over Arlington.

The modified charts, published last week, shrink the zones in which helicopters can fly over Northern Virginia and D.C. when operating on authorized business such as medical or law enforcement missions. A portion of the zone in Arlington, which previously extended to Fort Myer in the east, has been pushed back to west of Glebe Road.

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News

American Airlines plans to fight new lawsuit over crash at Reagan National

By Jared Serre
Reagan National Airport (staff photo by James Jarvis)

American Airlines intends to fight a recently filed lawsuit over the mid-air crash that killed 67 people near Reagan National Airport earlier this year.

The airline denies allegations that a failure to address known safety issues makes it partly responsible for the incident on Jan. 29. The company told ARLnow that it “has been supporting the families and loved ones” of crash victims and underscored its commitment to traveler safety.

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Family of crash victim sues FAA, Army and American Airlines

By The Associated Press and ARLnow.com
FILE - Crews pull up a part of a plane from the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, file)

By JOSH FUNK AP Transportation Writer

The family of one of the 67 people killed when an airliner collided with an Army helicopter over the Potomac River is suing the government and the airlines involved.

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News

Broken altimeter, ignored warnings: Hearings reveal what went wrong in DC crash that killed 67

By The Associated Press and ARLnow.com
FILE - A crane offloads a piece of wreckage from a salvage vessel onto a flatbed truck, near the wreckage site in the Potomac River of a mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and a Black Hawk helicopter, at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Feb. 5, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

By JOSH FUNK AP Transportation Writer

Over three days of sometimes contentious hearings last week, the National Transportation Safety Board interrogated Federal Aviation Administration and Army officials about a list of things that went wrong and contributed to a Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger jet colliding over Washington, D.C., killing 67 people.

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News

NTSB finds Army chopper in fatal midair crash with plane was above altitude limit

By The Associated Press
A piece of wreckage is lifted from the water onto a salvage vessel near the site in the Potomac River of a mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and a Black Hawk helicopter, at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Feb. 4, 2025 (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, file)

By JOSH FUNK AP Transportation Writer

Investigators probing the January midair collision of a passenger plane and an Army helicopter over Washington that killed 67 people found the chopper was flying higher than it should have been and its altitude readings were inaccurate.

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Army’s head of aviation, who faced questions over deadly midair collision, has new role

By The Associated Press
FILE - Brig. Gen. Matthew Braman, director of Army Aviation, center, answers questions, joined from left by Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, and Chris Rocheleau, acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, as the Senate Transportation Subcommittee holds a hearing to examine the preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board on the Jan. 29, 2025, midair collision of an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet, on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Army’s head of aviation has changed jobs to become chief of the branch’s enterprise marketing office, a move that comes before the National Transportation Safety Board holds hearings next week on January’s midair collision between an Army helicopter and a commercial jet that killed 67 people.

Brig. Gen. Matthew Braman became chief of the Army Enterprise Marketing Office this month to focus on advertising and boosting recruitment, according to his new bio on an Army website. An Army spokesperson said the plan to move Braman was in place last fall and had nothing to do with the tragedy.

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