The deadliest plane crash in the US in more than a decade happened over the airport closest to Capitol Hill, a frequent thoroughfare for lawmakers who will be probing the collision.
Lawmakers said Thursday that they are gathering information about the American Airlines regional passenger jet that collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter while landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, which has now become a recovery mission for the 67 people aboard both aircraft. Past US plane crashes have led to new aviation laws, and lawmakers are already raising questions about traffic at the airport.
“There are going to be a lot of questions obviously,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said Thursday. “We’ve been pretty plain about our concerns, but it isn’t a good time to speculate right now,” he said about the busy airspace at the airport that’s been the subject of frequent debate in Congress.
The collision broke an aviation safety streak for the nation: there hadn’t been a deadly US passenger plane crash since 2009 before Wednesday night. Congress has been trained on probing aviation safety in recent years as a slate of near-miss incidents, air traffic controller shortages and Boeing Co. safety concerns have led to hearings – and this incident is expected to escalate that.
The National Transportation Safety Board will be taking the lead on the investigation. A regional airliner from Wichita, Kansas collided midair with an Army helicopter while on approach to runway at Reagan Washington National Airport around 9 p.m. on Wednesday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
“After the NTSB investigation, we’ve got to make sure that at the federal level and with the support of Virginia, Maryland and D.C. we’re doing everything we can to make sure this does not happen again,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said.
Deadliest in Years
The collision is the deadliest in the US since 2009, when Colgan Air flight 3407 crashed into a house near Buffalo, N.Y. That crash led to a law about pilot training and qualification standards. Aviation safety agencies were also created after incidents, including the Transportation Security Administration after 9/11 and the FAA in 1958 after fatal crashes between passenger airlines and military planes.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), an Army helicopter pilot who chaired the aviation subcommittee last Congress, has talked often about how “aviation regulations are written in blood” after major aviation disasters. Transportation committee leaders overseeing aviation, who have said they are in touch with the safety agencies, will be key moving forward. Aviation safety officials have been raising concerns about strains on the system and a recent series of close calls.
Duckworth, after a call with NTSB and FAA on Thursday, said her understanding is that the American Airlines flight was cleared to land and the Black Hawk aircraft was told to pass behind the plane. She’s asked for transcripts of all the air traffic conversations and the flight path of both aircraft.
The collision may renew debate about runway safety at Reagan National Airport. Last year, lawmakers passed legislation to add flights to the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after a heavy lobbying fight, where some regional lawmakers raised concerns about how busy the airport was already. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said they have “raised this issue continuously,” but that they would ask those questions at the right time.
Congress has long had fights over the number of flights to allow in and out of DCA. American Airlines started a new direct flight from Wichita to DCA early last year.
“I know that flight, I’ve flown it many times myself,” Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), who leads the aviation subcommittee, said. “I lobbied American Airlines to begin having a direct, nonstop flight service to DCA.”
The crash offers a first major test for the new administration, which is without a permanent Senate-confirmed FAA administrator. Sean Duffy, who the Senate confirmed to be transportation secretary on Tuesday, has been at FAA headquarters and briefings at the airport since the incident.
Partisan Attacks
At a press conference early Thursday morning, Beyer talked about how he appreciated the bipartisanship of officials from different parties coming together around the crash. But that didn’t last long.
Without providing evidence, President Donald Trump faulted the FAA’s diversity program along with President Joe Biden and others in his administration in a briefing on Thursday. That drew a quick retort from Democrats and could preview more partisan clashes over the crash.
“It’s one thing for internet pundits to spew off conspiracy theories. It’s another for the President of the United States to throw out idle speculation as bodies are still being recovered and families still being notified,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. ”It just turns your stomach.”
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called Trump’s remarks “despicable.” He said his department “put safety first,” and that one of Trump’s first acts was to “fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe.” Trump singled out Buttigieg in his remarks.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who sits on the transportation committee and previously chaired it, said Thursday that he was interested in a full investigation and called it “too early” to know why it occurred.
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