NTSB CHAIR URGES ACTION AS DEBATE OVER AIR SAFETY LEGISLATION CONTINUES
June 19, 2026
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On May 14, 2026, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Homendy sent a letter to House and Senate lawmakers requesting that pending aviation safety legislation be enacted into law without further delay. By way of brief background, House and Senate lawmakers have taken two different approaches when it comes to passing aviation safety legislation following the fatal incident at DCA last January. The U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform (“ROTOR”) Act last December while members of the U.S. House of Representatives came together in April 2026 to advance the Airspace Location and Enhanced Risk Transparency (“ALERT”) Act. Despite their different legislative approaches to preventing future midair collisions around highly congested U.S. airports, NTSB Chair Homendy applauded both ROTOR and ALERT as worthwhile efforts to improve U.S. aviation safety, yet the letter underscored that a compromise between the two approaches will likely be necessary before final passage. Families of those passengers who died during the January 2025 midair collision at DCA also published their own letter to House and Senate lawmakers on May 18, 2026, advocating for a single, comprehensive legislative approach to address all fifty of NTSB’s safety recommendations.
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