NTSB chair says Senate bill could have prevented DC air crash

Kelly Livingston, CQ-Roll Call on Feb 12, 2026

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WASHINGTON — National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy urged Congress to take action on safety recommendations prompted by the January 2025 crash at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport during a Thursday hearing, saying if a bill on hold in the House had been law, the accident would not have happened.

Homendy made the comment during a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on the NTSB’s recent final report about the crash in response to a question from Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who sponsored the bill in question.

Cruz noted that the bill would mandate ADS-B In and Out — aviation position broadcasting and surveillance equipment — on aircraft, including military aircraft, flying into “congested airspace.” The law currently allows exemptions from using the technology.

“In your professional judgment, if the ROTOR Act had been the law at the time of this accident, would the accident have occurred?” he asked, using the acronym for his bill.

“No, it wouldn’t have occurred,” Homendy replied.

Cruz said he hoped the House would take up the bill “within the next two weeks.” The bill has been held at the desk in the House since Dec. 18. The Senate passed it by unanimous consent on Dec. 17.

If the bill is passed by the House, Homendy said certain measures could be implemented “immediately” while others would require time to allow for necessary Federal Aviation Administration rule-making.

“But in that amount of time, the risk still is in our airspace,” Homendy said. “So every day that goes by, we face the potential for another catastrophe to occur.”

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., ranking member of the Aviation, Space and Innovation Subcommittee, asked Homendy whether she would “support Congress elevating the NTSB recommendations following the DCA midair collision into a statutory requirement.”

Homendy replied that she would, saying Congress could “do that simply by requiring the entities to adopt the recommendations and reference our report.”

“What I will say, though, is we shouldn’t wait to move the provisions in the ROTOR Act. This isn’t a wait on ROTOR, move this legislation. This is a yes, and,” she added. “Congress can move many pieces of legislation every day.”

House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Sam Graves, R-Mo., said last week in a statement issued with ranking member Rick Larsen, D-Wash., and House Armed Services Chairman Mike D. Rogers, R-Ala., and ranking member Adam Smith, D-Wash., that they were working “expeditiously” on legislation.

Graves had previously said he was waiting to see the final NTSB report on the crash at the airport designated as DCA to decide how to proceed. The crash involved an Army Blackhawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet.

“Now that we have received the approved recommendations and probable cause from the NTSB on the tragic DCA midair collision that claimed 67 lives, and with the NTSB’s final report expected in a matter of days, we are working on a comprehensive legislative solution to address what we’ve learned,” the four House members said. “It is our firm belief that meaningful improvements to the safety of our airspace require the full and fair consideration of all of the NTSB’s recommendations.”