Senators from both parties on Thursday pressed for changes to a massive defense bill, after accident investigators and victims’ families warned that the bill would undo key safety reforms stemming from the collision of a passenger plane and an Army helicopter in Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people.
The head of the National Transportation Safety Board investigating the crash, a group of victims’ families and senators on the Commerce Committee all said the bill introduced by the House on Wednesday would make America’s skies less safe. They say this will leave the military operating in much the same way as before the January accident, the worst in more than two decades.
Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell and Republican committee chair Sen. Ted Cruz filed two amendments Thursday that would remove worrisome helicopter safety provisions and replace them with a bill they introduced last summer that would strengthen the requirements, but it’s unclear whether Republican leadership will allow changes to the NDAA at this stage that would delay its passage.
“We have a responsibility to enshrine actual security improvements into law and not leave wider holes for the Department of Defense,” the senators said.
Currently, the bill includes exceptions that 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 positions, as they did before the January collision. The Federal Aviation Administration began requiring this in March. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Jennifer Homendy called the bill a “major safety setback” that would lead to a repeat of the disaster.
“This poses an unacceptable risk to the flying public, commercial and military aircraft, crews and residents of the area,” Homendy said. “It is also an incredible disregard for our investigation and for the 67 families … who lost their loved ones in a completely avoidable tragedy. It is disgraceful.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he was looking into the concerns but believed they could be addressed by quickly passing the aviation safety bill that Cruz and Cantwell introduced last summer.
“I think this will address the concerns that people have about that provision and hopefully we can find a path to get this bill done,” said Thune, a South Dakota Republican.
The military used a national security exemption to circumvent FAA safety requirements before the crash, citing concerns about the safety risks of revealing the helicopter’s location. Tim Lilley and Sheri Lilley, whose son Sam was a first officer on the American Airlines plane, said the bill would add “a window-dressing fix that would continue to allow layup requirements with only a cursory risk assessment.”
Homendy said it was absurd to entrust the military with assessing safety risks without experts, and that neither the Army nor the FAA was aware of the 85 near-misses that occurred around Ronald Reagan National Airport in the years before the crash. The military didn’t know how to conduct such a risk assessment, she said, adding that no one who drafted the bill bothered to consult experts known to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The White House and the military did not immediately respond Thursday to questions about those security concerns. But earlier this week, Trump made it clear he wanted to sign the National Defense Authorization Act because it advances many of his priorities and provides a 3.8% pay increase for many service members.
The Senate is expected to take up the bill next week, but any final changes appear unlikely. But Congress is on vacation this weekend and the defense bill is thought to have to be passed before the end of the year.