Relatives of air crash victims want new safety measures

The loved ones of the 67 people who died last year when an airliner and Army helicopter collided over Washington, D.C., urged Congress and regulators on Tuesday to do more now so other families aren’t left clutching belongings and memories instead of their spouses and children.

Several of the victims’ families joined with top lawmakers and the head of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) outside the US Capitol to demand action, but it may be difficult for this Congress to pass anything ahead of the midterm elections. Lawmakers are still trying to draft a compromise bill that will combine elements of the competing proposals that previously passed the House and Senate.

Doug Lane said he has the US figure skating jacket that his son Spencer worked so hard to earn and pieces of his wife Christine’s laptop that were retrieved from the wreckage after their plane plunged into the icy Potomac River in the deadliest US aviation disaster since 2001. Everyone aboard was killed when American Airlines Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, and the Army Black Hawk helicopter on a training mission collided. The victims included 28 members of the figure skating community.

Lane said the families don’t want to see the key reforms recommended after this crash — which include requiring planes to be equipped with systems that will let pilots know exactly where other aircraft are — to wind up like some of the never-implemented measures proposed after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Airline pilots are still pushing for secondary barriers to keep someone from storming the cockpit when the door is opened.

“That is what fading urgency looks like. Something everyone agrees will make people safer gets caught in process, objections, exceptions and delay until you look up and an entire generation has passed. Flight 5342 cannot follow that path,” Lane said.

The FAA quickly restricted helicopter traffic around Reagan National Airport when it became clear that a helicopter route in the approach path of the airport’s secondary runway didn’t ensure enough separation between helicopters and planes. But the NTSB remains unsatisfied with the FAA’s response to a third of the 33 safety recommendations it received. FAA Administrator Brian Bedford testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that his staff will work to address those concerns, but he also needs guidance from Congress.

Already, steps have been taken to prevent helicopters and planes from sharing the same airspace around Reagan airport, and air traffic controllers are now prohibited from relying only on pilots to see other aircraft and avoid them. But worrying incidents continue to happen, such as when an airline jet was allowed to take off just as US President Donald Trump’s helicopter was taking off from the White House last month.

Lane and many other victims’ families travelled to the nation’s capital repeatedly since the crash.

“We can tell them stories, we can ask questions. We can push for answers. We can take action. That’s the work that belongs to us. But we cannot do anybody else’s work for them,” Lane said. “We need the people with the power to turn this tragedy into change to do theirs and to finish it.”