On Thursday, bipartisan members of the United States House of Representatives introduced a comprehensive aviation safety bill in response to the major air disaster in January 2025 involving an American Airlines regional plane and an Army Black Hawk helicopter, which resulted in the deaths of 67 individuals. The bill aims to implement 50 aviation safety recommendations put forward following a year-long investigation.
The leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Armed Services Committee stated that the bill will address a number of critical issues, including improving the safety culture within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), enhancing training and standard operating procedures for air traffic controllers, and bolstering airspace security around Washington National Airport (Reagan National Airport) where the incident occurred.
In addition, the House is expected to vote on the Rotorcraft Occupational Training and Operational Readiness (ROTOR) Act next Monday, February 23. This act, which unanimously passed in the Senate last December, mandates that all aviation operators must fully equip their fleets with Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) safety systems by the end of 2031.
The Senate version of the bill also enhanced regulations on commercial airplanes, helicopter traffic, and flight paths near commercial airports. However, it remains unclear whether the new provisions introduced in the House on Thursday will be integrated into the Senate version of the bill.
Sam Graves, Chairman of the House Transportation Committee, emphasized, “This comprehensive bill addresses the various factors that led to this accident and will make our aviation system safer.”
Democratic Chief Member of the committee, Rick Larsen, noted that the bill incorporates all 50 recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) aimed at “improving airspace safety and protecting passengers from repeating past mistakes.”
Specifically, the House bill requires a comprehensive and independent audit of the FAA’s safety culture and safety management system, mandatory improvements to helicopter flight path designs, and addresses multiple issues concerning military aviation operations.
Last month, the NTSB investigation found that the collision was a result of systematic errors within the FAA, making it the most serious air disaster in the United States since 2001.
The NTSB determined that the cause of the accident was due to the FAA allowing helicopters to fly close to airports without adequate safety barriers and failing to rigorously review data, neglecting safety recommendations to “move helicopter flight paths away from airport perimeters.”
In response to the series of failures leading up to the disaster, the NTSB presented over 30 improvement recommendations to the FAA. FAA Administrator, Bryan Bedford, admitted during a meeting on Thursday that the agency indeed needs to improve its internal culture and pledged to implement all recommendations from the safety board.