US lawmakers, NTSB say military helicopter proposal would make skies less safe

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, Dec 10 (Reuters) – A bipartisan group of key senators and the head of the National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday sharply criticized provisions on military helicopter safety in an annual defense bill released this week.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said the proposal would make the skies less safe, calling it “an unacceptable risk to the flying public, to commercial and military aircraft crews and to the residents in the region … This is a significant, significant safety setback.”

Aviation safety in the Washington area has come under scrutiny after the January 29 collision between an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed 67 people. The Army Black Hawk helicopter was flying above maximum altitude levels and not broadcasting ADS-B – an advanced aircraft-tracking technology – at the time of the crash. 

After a close call in May, the Federal Aviation Administration barred the Army from helicopter flights around the Pentagon.

Homendy called the proposal “a safety whitewash” and said she could not assure the safety of the airspace in the Washington airspace if it became law. “I could not assure anybody. I would not stand up there and say, This guarantees safety,” she said.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz, a Republican, along with the top Democrat on the panel, Maria Cantwell, and the top senators on an aviation subcommitttee – Jerry Moran and Tammy Duckworth, said in a joint statement the proposal “protects the status quo, allowing military aircraft to keep flying in DC airspace under different rules and with outdated transmission requirements … We must act decisively to prevent future tragedies.”

The defense bill would require U.S. military helicopters on training missions to broadcast alerts to nearby commercial aviation aircraft but does not specify the type of alerts. The Defense Department could waive the requirement if a risk assessment had been completed and those risks to commercial planes could be addressed.

The senators had announced bipartisan legislation after the collision. The bill would require aircraft operators to equip their fleets with ADS-B by the end of 2031 and other significant safety reforms, including boosting oversight of mixed jet and helicopter traffic and flight routes near commercial service airports.

Families of those killed in the Jan. 29 collission also oppose the language in the defense bill. The bill “does not resolve the visibility and coordination failures that contributed to the tragedy” and called for “real, enforceable visibility standards for all military aircraft operating near civilian traffic.”

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese and Matthew Lewis)