Families of victims of the deadly 2025 midair collision over the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport gathered with lawmakers outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, making an impassioned appeal for Congress to pass air safety legislation.
The crash involving American Airlines Flight 5342 and an Army helicopter claimed the lives of 67 people, making it one of the worst U.S. air disasters in decades.
“The greatest tragedy of that is that it was utterly and completely preventable,” said U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Federal Aviation Administration.
He and other lawmakers were surrounded by family members of the victims, who held pictures of those who lost their lives.
The family members are frustrated that more than 18 months since the January 2025 collision, Congress has still not given final approval to legislation that has widespread bipartisan support.
Doug Lane is among those who have been working tirelessly to try to get the legislation passed.
He lost his wife Christine and 16-year-old son Spencer, a figure skating prodigy, in the crash.
“The families have done our part,” he said. “Members of both parties have come together around meaningful legislation. It’s time to finish it.”
The Senate unanimously passed the ROTOR Act last year. But the House failed to approve the legislation earlier this year, falling just short of the needed two-thirds majority on a vote of 264-133.
The legislation incorporates many of the recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board in the wake of the accident.
They include requiring aircraft to include equipment known as ADS-B In, which can provide pilots with real-time information about the location of nearby aircraft.
The NTSB has said that if the equipment had been in the regional jet and the Army helicopter, the airline pilot would have had 59 seconds of warning time and the chopper pilot would have had 48 seconds.
The NTSB reported that the helicopter crew never saw the plane until right at impact, even though the passenger plane was preparing to land at Reagan National Airport.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, who spoke at the news conference Tuesday, said her agency made 50 safety recommendations in its final report on the accident.
She said 33 of the recommendations were made to the FAA, but the NTSB found that the agency’s response to a third of them have been “unacceptable.”
“Every single day that passes without implementation of our recommendations is an unacceptable risk to aviation safety,” she said. “An unacceptable risk to crew members. An unacceptable risk to the flying public, to passengers.”
Homendy said she will continue to “push relentlessly” for the air safety provisions to be implemented, on behalf of the victims’ families.
Virginia Reps. Suhas Subramanyam and Don Beyer also spoke and thanked the families for their commitment to saving future lives.
“Even though near-miss collisions keep occurring, both in D.C. and across the country, Congress has still failed to pass these critical safety measures into law,” Subramanyam said. “So now is the time for leaders in Congress to come together and pass comprehensive aviation safety legislation.”
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