By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) – The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said responses by the Federal Aviation Administration to 11 of 33 recommendations made by the board after a 2025 mid-air collision killed 67 people near Washington were “unacceptable” and failed to address safety concerns.
The January 2025 collision of an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport was the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster in more than two decades.
The NTSB said the FAA had not agreed to mandate a key safety system known as ADS-B In, which was one of the board’s recommendations.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said the system could have given the passenger plane pilot an alert 59 seconds before the collision and the helicopter crew 48 seconds before the collision.
“How many more decades have to go by before we again and again and again have to recommend it after terrible tragedy?” Homendy told Reuters.
Homendy and families from some of those killed in the collision will again urge Congress on Tuesday to pass legislation to address the causes of the accident.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told Reuters in July the FAA could move forward on ADS-B without action from Congress but would prefer direction from lawmakers.
In a letter seen by Reuters detailing its responses to the safety board on Tuesday, the FAA said it is reviewing helicopter routes in six major cities, has completed reviews of routes in four cities, and has issued a directive to keep planes and helicopters separate.
The NTSB said Monday the FAA did not indicate if it intends to write rules to require ADS-B In.
The safety board makes recommendations and then issues status updates on its push to convince regulators to make changes. It labels them unacceptable if the agency disagrees with the recommendation, offers an alternative the NTSB finds would not address the concern, or fails to take action in a timely fashion.
In January, the NTSB found systemic failures by the FAA led to the 2025 collision, the worst U.S. aviation disaster since 2001. It said the accident was caused by the FAA’s decision to allow helicopters to travel close to the airport with no safeguards to separate them from airplanes and its failure to review data and act on recommendations to move helicopter traffic away from the airport.
The U.S. House of Representatives in April voted 396-10 to pass a sweeping aviation safety reform bill to address dozens of recommendations, while a rival bill known as the ROTOR Act passed the U.S. Senate unanimously in December but needed a two-thirds majority in the House to pass under fast-track rules and it fell one vote short.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Nick Zieminski and Stephen Coates)
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