The collision between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger aircraft at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 29 spurred Congress and the Trump administration to act on making the airways safer, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Newsmax on Wednesday.
Cruz on Tuesday, the six-month anniversary of the accident that claimed 67 lives, introduced the Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform Act, which establishes new requirements for virtually all aircraft and helicopters to use technology that allows aircraft to accurately communicate their location with greater precision than traditional radar.
"The ROTOR Act is directly derived from what happened on that accident six months ago," Cruz told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren."
"And this is safety legislation that would mandate that every aircraft in commercial airspace have what is called ADS-B [automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast] In and ADS-B out. ... ADS-B is more advanced technology to provide the precise location for an aircraft. It's much more precise than radar.
"ADS-B Out is the aircraft projecting to air traffic control and other aircraft exactly where they are. ADS-B In is the technology to receive from the other aircraft to see where they are," he said.
"The NTSB [National Transportation Safety Board] has been recommending that aircraft have ADS-B In for 20 years, and yet many aircraft do not have ADS-B In. And the Army helicopter that that caused this crash was not broadcasting ADS-B Out.
"That has got to change. And I believe this legislation I introduced yesterday ... I think we're going to get it passed, and it's going to be really important safety legislation to keep the flying public safe."
Cruz said the One Big Beautiful Bill Act also allocates $12.5 billion for updating the nation's air traffic control systems.
"That accident was truly horrific," Cruz said. "It was the worst air accident in decades. It occurred six months ago. And I will tell you, there needs to be real accountability. One of the things that has already spurred is a renewed commitment to investing and improving our air traffic control equipment.
"In the 'one big, beautiful bill' that President [Donald] Trump signed into law on July 4, it included $12.5 billion that I wrote into the law to upgrade our air traffic control equipment, to get new radar equipment, new computers, new technology to bring us into the 21st century. That's a very positive step in the right direction."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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