Family members of some of the 67 people killed in January’s midair collision in Washington listened to the US Army and Federal Aviation Administration take fiery questions from lawmakers for the first time Thursday at a Senate subcommittee hearing on the preliminary findings of the accident.
The Senate hearing came two weeks after the National Transportation Safety Board, whose chair also testified Thursday, unveiled its preliminary report on the fatal collision between the American Airlines regional jet and an Army Blackhawk helicopter at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. It was the first major aviation accident in the United States in nearly 20 years. The NTSB issued two urgent safety recommendations with the report, which the FAA adopted rapidly.
Previously, investigators uncovered 15,214 “near miss events” between 2021 and 2024 where aircraft were within one nautical mile of each other, with a vertical separation of less than 400 feet. There were also 85 cases where aircraft were less than 1,500 feet apart, with a vertical separation of less than 200 feet, according to the NTSB.
The findings revealed a “systemic issue,” that lawmakers are demanding answers on, said Sen. Maria Cantwell, ranking member of the Senate’s Commerce, Science and Transportation committee.
“I want to know, why did the FAA not act?,” Cantwell said. “Why did the FAA not act on 15,000 reports of dangerous proximity? How were these helicopter routes allowed to remain when alarm bells were literally going off in the towers?”
FAA Acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau responded he was “very concerned” about what’s been learned so far.
“Clearly something was missed,” he said…
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/27/us/washington-midair-collision-senate-hearing-army-faa/
“Clearly something was missed,”
Yes but did you die?
They also know people aren’t doing to stop flying.
So we are supposed to believe that it’s Biden to blame? The statistics were only obtained from 2021 to 2024 so it is assumed all was well under Trump? I guess the near collisions went from zero to 15,000 starting in January 2021.
R I G H T
BARB, did I lie, or just state facts?
Is that you ‘Mike’?
It wouldn’t hurt to see a histogram of aviation near-misses going back a while (say 20 to 25 years) to have some perspective on this. I agree that 15,000 sounds ridiculous, but it would help to see how much of a change has occurred. In other words, how many near misses occurred before the DEI queens took over the control towers? Reference that to the current nightmare
The demons in high places were pi$$ed. Eph 6:12. Democrats.