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Key lawmakers and the bereaved families of the 67 victims of last year’s tragic airliner collision near the capital are pressing for the implementation of advanced aircraft locator systems. Experts have advocated for these systems for nearly 20 years, arguing they could have averted the catastrophe. However, the passage of legislation mandating these systems at busy airports remains uncertain.
The Senate Commerce Committee is set to hold a hearing on Thursday to underscore the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) long-standing recommendation since 2008. They advise equipping all aircraft with dual systems: one to broadcast their locations and another to receive data about other aircraft. Currently, only the broadcasting system is mandated. This hearing will evaluate all 50 NTSB recommendations to prevent another incident like the collision on January 29, 2025.
The disaster claimed the lives of all aboard the helicopter and the American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas, including 28 figure skating community members, as their planes collided and crashed into the frigid Potomac River.
The Senate has already given unanimous approval to a bill requiring both types of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) systems on aircraft in busy airspaces. However, leaders of pivotal House committees are inclined to develop their own comprehensive legislation that addresses all NTSB recommendations, rather than swiftly passing the current ROTOR act. While ADS-B Out systems, which continually transmit an aircraft’s position and speed, have been mandatory since 2020, the ADS-B In systems, capable of receiving signals and providing pilots with a real-time air traffic display, are not yet standard.
According to the NTSB, victims’ families, and key lawmakers, if the American Airlines plane and the helicopter had been equipped with ADS-B In systems, the pilots might have had the opportunity to avoid the fatal collision.
The receiving systems would have provided more warning along with an indication of where the other aircraft was. But for that to work the helicopter’s ADS-B Out system that’s supposed to broadcast its location would have to be turned on and working correctly, which wasn’t the case on the night of the crash.
Tragedy could have been prevented
These locator systems are one of the measures that might have been able to overcome all the systemic problems and mistakes the NTSB identified in the disaster. That’s why this requirement was endorsed by NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy — the only witness called to the hearing — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and all of the Senate.
“This seems like a no-brainer, right? Especially when this is not a new thing that they’re proposing,” said Amy Hunter, whose cousin Peter Livingston died on the flight with his wife and two young daughters.
Afterward, the FAA made several changes including prohibiting helicopters from flying along the route where the crash happened whenever a plane is landing on the secondary runway at Reagan National Airport and requiring all aircraft to use their ADS-B Out systems to broadcast their locations.
The crash anniversary and NTSB hearing on the causes of the crash have made recent weeks challenging for victims’ families. And now the Olympics are reminding Hunter and others that their loved ones — like young Everly and Alydia Livingston — will never have a chance to realize their dreams of competing for a gold medal.
Cost concerns for plane owners
The biggest stumbling block is cost. Upgrading some airline jets might cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, placing an expensive burden on some — especially regional airlines with tighter profit margins like the one that flew the jet that collided with the Army helicopter. Some also worry whether general aviation pilots could afford the upgrades.
But some airlines have already begun to add the technology to their planes, partly because in addition to the safety benefits, the systems can help increase the number of planes that can fly into an airport by spacing them more precisely. American Airlines leads the industry, having added the technology to its Airbus A321s over the past several years, equipping more than 300 of its roughly 1,000 planes to date.
Any plane more than a decade old likely doesn’t have either of these systems installed. Most newer planes have at least an ADS-B Out system that broadcasts their location.
But roughly three quarters of the pilots of business jets and smaller single-engine Cessnas and Bonanzas use portable devices that only cost several hundred dollars, made by companies like ForeFlight, that can tap into this location data and display the information about nearby aircraft on an iPad. So it doesn’t appear the legislation would create a significant expense for them.
Tim Lilley, a pilot himself, said having both these locator systems would have saved the life of his son Sam, who was copilot of the airliner, and everyone else who died. He said small plane owners have an affordable option, but even the expensive upgrades to large planes would be worth it.
“If those recommendations had been fully realized, this accident wouldn’t have happened,” Lilley said. “I don’t know what value we put on the human life, but 67 lives would still be here today.”