House hits pause button on bill aimed at preventing mid-air collisions at busy airports

Pushback from private aircraft owners has stalled passage of legislation that proponents say would help prevent a repeat of last year’s tragic collision between a commercial jet and a Black Hawk helicopter at Reagan National Airport.

The Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform Act passed the Senate unanimously in December. But rather than getting a quick endorsement from the House, the ROTOR Act is undergoing new scrutiny by House Republicans amid complaints it will force private pilots to pay for expensive equipment that could jeopardize privacy.

The debate on the legislation is heating up nearly two weeks from the first anniversary on Jan. 29 of the devastating collision at Reagan National Airport that killed 64 passengers and crew aboard American Airlines Flight 5342 and three soldiers on an Army Black Hawk helicopter.

Talks about possible tweaks to the bill are ongoing between the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, and House lawmakers, chief among them Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Sam Graves, sources told The Washington Times.

The negotiations center on a requirement that all pilots entering busy commercial airspace equip their planes with a type of Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast equipment, known as ADS-B In, which provides weather and traffic positions of other planes directly to the cockpit.

The technology would give pilots an awareness of nearby aircraft, which proponents say will help them avoid mid-air collisions.

A spokesperson for the House Transportation Committee told The Times the panel is awaiting the National Transportation Safety Board’s final report on the Reagan National accident before acting on the bill.

“Once we review and take into account the NTSB’s final report, we will then consider any potential next steps,” the spokesperson said.

The NTSB will hold a Jan. 27 hearing at which its final report on the accident is expected to be released.

In the meantime, Mr. Graves is pushing back against the current version of the bill and said he does not support the legislation without changes.

“This is emotional legislation, and the worst legislation is legislation that comes about as a result of an accident like this. Nothing in this act would have prevented what happened to D.C,” Mr. Graves told Politico.

The accident at Reagan National has been largely blamed on an Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter that flew into the American Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 airliner as it was crossing over the Potomac River on final approach to the airport.

General aviation pilots believe the Senate-passed legislation goes too far and places a heavy burden on private pilots who had nothing to do with the collision at Reagan National.

While many newer private planes and private jets already have the equipment installed, many older private aircraft do not.

Installing the new equipment on a small private aircraft could be costly — up to $50,000 unless alternative portable devices can be substituted at a much lower cost, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said last month at a House hearing.

Portable devices are much cheaper, ranging in cost from a few hundred dollars to more than $1,000. The legislation allows for certain light aircraft, among them many Cessnas, Piper and Beech aircraft, to utilize portable devices, but the equipment would have to meet certain standards that have yet to be determined.

According to Mr. Bedford, private pilots are also worried about privacy, specifically that their ADS-B information could be “taken and published.”

Mr. Bedford told House lawmakers the issues can be worked out to satisfy private pilots, who would benefit from the added technology.  

“The ROTOR Act, as a pilot, I love it,” he said. “I think we want more situational awareness, not less.”

The new requirement would follow a 2010 FAA rule that mandated all airplanes install Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast, known as ADS-B Out, that broadcasts information about a plane’s GPS location, altitude, ground speed and other data to ground stations and other aircraft at a rate of once per second.

Some general aviation pilots struggled to come up with the thousands of dollars needed to install the equipment by the 2020 deadline, and it forced the retirement of many older private jets.

All commercial airlines are equipped with ADS-B Out technology and many newer commercial planes have installed both ADS-B In and ADS-B Out equipment.

But many commercial jets do not have ADS-B In installed.

In commercial airliners, the cost to install ADS-B In technology would be much higher than in private planes.

An NTSB source who has criticisms of the legislation’s mandate said it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per commercial airliner to install the equipment. Some commercial airliners, the NTSB source said, “do not have the capability for it and it will need to be developed.”

While all commercial airliners are required to use ADS-B Out technology, it is not clear how many utilize the ADS-B In equipment that shows nearby planes.

American Airlines has installed ADS-B In technology on all of its 300 Airbus A321 aircraft, the company said. A spokesperson would not disclose how many of its fleet overall use ADS-B In technology.

The Black Hawk involved in the collision at Reagan National was operating with its ADS-B Out system turned off.

The ROTOR Act would require military aircraft to keep ADS-B systems on when operating near busy airports, with some exceptions allowed for missions involving cabinet members or the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman.

It’s not clear whether the regional jet hit by the helicopter was equipped with ADS-B In, which would have alerted the pilots to the Black Hawk if it had its ADS-B Out equipment turned on.

A spokesperson for Mr. Cruz said 80% of general aviation already uses the technology proposed in the bill and that equipping aircraft with ADS-B In is a longstanding NTSB recommendation.

“This commonsense safety requirement would have prevented the DCA crash that claimed 67 lives and will prevent another needless tragedy,” the spokesperson said.