A bill on aircraft positioning systems recommended by the NTSB failed in the House

The House of Representatives failed to approve a bill drafted after last year’s tragic mid-air collision near Washington, D.C., that would require all planes flying around busy airports to have key positioning systems to prevent such accidents. The collision of a passenger plane and a military helicopter killed 67 people.

The National Transportation Safety Board has been recommending the installation of automatic broadcast and monitoring systems since 2008. The bill that already passed the Senate would have required planes to be equipped with a system that could receive data about the positions of other planes. A supplementary ADS-B Out system that broadcasts the aircraft’s position is already required.

He watches: NTSB Chairman Homendy testifies about DCA’s mid-air collision investigation at Senate hearing

This action was strongly supported by the families of the victims who died when an American Airlines plane collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter. But the American Airlines Trade Group, the military and major general aviation groups representing business jets and small aircraft owners supported a competing, more comprehensive bill in the House that was just introduced last week.

Under the special process used to speed up the bill, Rotor’s bill would have needed to get more than two-thirds support to pass the House. He received 264 votes, but 133 other representatives voted against him.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves pledged to continue working with the victims’ families and the Senate to address aviation safety concerns exposed by last year’s collision. He said the House bill could be put before the committee as soon as next week. This bill is designed to address all 50 recommendations made by the NTSB — not just GPS technology, but NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the House bill doesn’t accomplish that.

The cost of ADS-B under authorization has been a concern. It’s not clear how much that will cost in part because the systems have not yet been designed for each plane, but Homendy testified in Congress that American Airlines has been able to outfit more than 300 Airbus A321s for $50,000 apiece, and general aviation pilots also have the option of using a portable receiver that costs about $400 and works with an iPad.

Fabrice Kunzi, one of the lead researchers who helped develop these GPS systems, said the plane’s dashboard should not be repaired to add a new display because the system is designed to give pilots an audible warning about nearby traffic with details of their location if there is a risk of collision.

Bills in the House and Senate took a different approach

The main difference between the two bills is that the House version would not require the installation of both types of broadcast and automatic affiliate monitoring systems. Instead, the House bill would require the FAA to investigate which technology might be best as part of a lengthy rulemaking process before requiring a solution. The House bill also covers several aspects of the systemic failures that the NTSB identified as causing the collapse last January 29.

The bipartisan Senate group behind Rotor’s Law — led by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democrat Maria Cantwell — said their bill would be a good first step before additional legislation is drafted.

The main Flight 5342 families group said that although the House bill includes a number of good reforms that should be considered, they cannot support it as written because it does not explicitly require ADS-B in the equipment. Everyone aboard the helicopter and the American Airlines plane flying from Wichita, Kansas, including the parents of Olympic skier Maxim Naumov and 26 other members of the snowboarding community, died when the plane collided and plunged into the Potomac Glacier.

Doug Lane said that when he learned more about the accident that killed his wife and young son who was snowboarding, he couldn’t understand why planes weren’t already equipped with the technology.

“It was inconceivable to me that in the age of smartphones with GPS in every pocket, there was no way for pilots flying tens of millions of dollars worth of planes to see if other planes in the airspace were on a collision course,” Lin said before Tuesday’s vote.

Improved collision warning system

Any aircraft flying around a major airport is already required to have an ADS-B Out system that continuously broadcasts the aircraft’s position and proven speed. ADS-B systems that can receive those signals and use them to create a display that shows pilots where all the air traffic around them is is not standard on airplanes, though many general aviation pilots already use a portable receiver to display that information on an iPad.

The NTSB investigation showed that the system would have provided much greater warning to the pilots involved in the crash and would have allowed them to avoid a collision. An aircraft equipped with ADS-B In can give the pilot a detailed description of where other aircraft are located, whereas current technology can only warn of the presence of traffic in the area.