The National Transit Safety Board says responses from the FAA to 11 out of 13 of the agency’s safety recommendations were “unacceptable” following the Washington D.C. mid-air collision that occurred in January 2025.
The FAA’s responses failed to address key safety concerns that led to the fatal collision of an Army helicopter and a regional passenger aircraft that killed 67 people near Washington Reagan National Airport, NTSB officials told Reuters.
One central issue is that the FAA has so far refused to implement a safety system called ADS-B In, which is essentially locator equipment that allows aircraft to see each other. Under current regulations, military aircraft aren’t compelled to use ADS-B In.
If both aircraft had been using the safety system on the day of the collision, the passenger plane would have received an alert 59 seconds before the crash, and the Army helicopter would have received an alert 48 seconds before, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told Reuters.
Although the NTSB investigates aviation accidents and identifies their causes, the board can only make recommendations to other agencies about what safety policies should change. The NTSB doesn’t have its own authority to implement policy changes.
"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 of passengers killed in the collision are going to Congress on Tuesday to urge lawmakers to address the ADS-B In issue, among other changes.
According to Reuters, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in July that the agency could implement the system on its own, but would prefer for Congress to mandate the change.
Lawmakers have written legislation to make ADS-B In usage mandatory for all aircraft in a bill called the ROTOR Act, which was first introduced in fall 2025.
The Senate unanimously passed the bill in December 2025, but the legislation failed a subsequent vote in the House.
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