The National Transportation Safety Board issued a letter to congressional leaders Thursday warning that the proposed ALERT Act does not fully implement the agency’s safety recommendations stemming from last year’s midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
In a letter to the House Armed Services and Transportation and Infrastructure committees, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy and board members Michael Graham, Tom Chapman and Todd Inman wrote that while the bill would address some recommendations, it would not require the FAA to mandate ADS-B In in airspace where ADS-B Out is currently required.
The House on Tuesday also did not advance separate legislation, the ROTOR Act, which would have required ADS-B In equipage in certain airspace, after the measure failed to reach the two-thirds threshold under a suspension vote.
“Based on our evaluation of the ALERT Act, as introduced, while we believe that the bill would address a few of our recommendations, we believe that many key provisions fall short of fully implementing all of the NTSB’s recommendations,” the letter states.
Among those recommendations is a requirement that all aircraft operating in airspace where ADS-B Out is mandated also be equipped with ADS-B In and a cockpit display configured to provide audible traffic alerts to pilots or flight crews. The board also recommended that the Pentagon require military aircraft to carry ADS-B In with similar alerting capability wherever ADS-B Out is required in nation airspace.
Several members of the U.S. House of Representatives argued against the ROTOR Act during debate on Monday, on the basis that ADS-B In equipment would be cost-prohibitive for carriers, while others characterized ADS-B as an “emerging technology.”
“While we laud ADS-B systems as an emerging technology in commercially fixed-wing and rotorcraft aviation that could have prevented this accident, it is still exactly that, an emerging technology,” said Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., who also serves as the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “There are still technological barriers to implement ADS-B [In] into the 5,500 commercial aircraft that are in the skies at any given moment. Ultimately, any successful directive or mandate from Congress will be calculated, scalable and future proof, not a blanket mandate that limits the aviation community to one technology.”
ADS-B development in the United States began in the late 1990s under FAA initiatives such as Safe Flight 21 and the Capstone Program, which started in 1999 in Alaska and laid the groundwork for national implementation. ADS-B entered operational air traffic control use on January 1, 2001 in Bethel, Alaska, and the FAA’s final rule published in 2010, which required ADS-B use in certain controlled airspaces, began January 1, 2020.
The NTSB’s letter regarding the ALERT Act follows its year-long investigation into the Jan. 29, 2025, collision, which resulted in 67 fatalities. According to the agency, simulations conducted during the investigation indicated that, had ADS-B In with alerting capability been installed, crews would have received traffic alerts up to 59 seconds before impact.
“We conducted a year-long investigation, published over 19,000 pages of evidence in our public docket, and issued 74 findings and 50 recommendations aimed at preventing another tragedy and saving lives,” Tim LeBaron, director of the NTSB’s Office of Aviation Safety, said. “Efforts to now water-down our evidence-based recommendations are counter to safety and dishonor the lives of 67 people who died on January 29, 2025.”
“emerging technology” what century are some of these people in?
just goes to show that there are some people in congress that really have no clue