Senate Revisits D.C. Midair Crash With ADS‑B Reform Push

The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing Thursday on aviation safety reforms after the Jan. 29, 2025 midair collision of an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River near Washington, D.C., which killed 67 people, including 28 from the figure skating community. Lawmakers, victims’ families and NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy are pressing for passage of the ROTOR Act, which would require aircraft operating around busy airports to carry not just ADS‑B Out transmitters, already mandated since 2020, but also ADS‑B In receivers so pilots can see other traffic in real time. Investigators say an ADS‑B In display in the jet’s cockpit could have given the crew almost a minute of warning about the helicopter’s position instead of the 19 seconds provided by the existing collision‑avoidance system, though the Army aircraft’s ADS‑B Out unit was not switched on the night of the crash. The hearing will also examine all 50 open NTSB recommendations from the crash, while House leaders are weighing whether to simply pass the already‑approved Senate bill or fold the locator‑system mandate into a broader FAA and safety package. The FAA has separately changed procedures to bar helicopters from flying that route whenever Reagan National’s secondary runway is in use, but families argue that without cockpit‑level traffic displays and working transmitters, systemic risk remains unaddressed.