By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Ten U.S. House of Representatives Democratic lawmakers on Friday urged the Pentagon to reduce military training flights in the Washington, D.C., area after a January mid-air collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S.
Army helicopter killed 67 people.
The lawmakers, in a letter, said they also want the Pentagon to require use of a safety system known as ADS-B that was not operating on the Army helicopter at the time of the collision near Reagan Washington National Airport.
“To the maximum extent practicable, military training flights should be conducted outside the National Capital Region,” Representative Don Beyer and the other Democrats wrote.
Civilian airplanes must use ADS-B to broadcast their location, but it appears the military is routinely failing to use the safety system in training flights, lawmakers said.
Last Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration imposed permanent restrictions on non-essential helicopter operations around Reagan.
The FAA also barred helicopters and passenger jets from flying near each other. The FAA’s actions followed two urgent safety recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board after the collision.
The FAA also prohibited use of two smaller runways at the airport when helicopters conducting urgent missions are operating nearby.
“VIP travel can often be feasibly substituted for vehicular travel or flight paths that route further outside of the region, and other helicopter flights are simply not necessary … within this oversaturated airspace,” wrote the lawmakers that include Representatives Steny Hoyer, Jamie Raskin, Suhas Subramanyam, Eleanor Holmes Norton and Gerry Connolly.
On Thursday, Senate Commerce Committee chair Ted Cruz will hold a hearing on the mid-air collision with acting FAA administrator Chris Rocheleau, Army Aviation director Brigadier General Matthew Braman and National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy.
Airlines for America, a group representing American Airlines and other U.S.
carriers, this month urged the FAA to permanently reduce helicopter traffic around the airport.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said last month it was time to shrink unneeded military flights.
“If we have generals who are flying in helicopters for convenience through this airspace, that’s not acceptable.
Get a damn Suburban and drive – you don’t need to take a helicopter,” Duffy said.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)
