Posted on 03/28/2025 3:08:06 AM PDT by george76
Family members of January's Potomac River plane and helicopter crash victims voiced frustrations after Thursday's Senate aviation subcommittee hearing.
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Family members of the victims of the January plane and helicopter crash at Reagan National Airport (DCA) voiced frustrations with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after a preliminary report found that the airport had 1,500 near misses in the past three years.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)’s preliminary report was presented at Thursday’s Senate Subcommittee on Aviation, Space, and Innovation hearing. Victims’ families and their lawyers argued that the NTSB’s findings suggested the deadly crash was preventable.
“I was surprised at the lapses of safety protocols that led to this crash,” Dailey Crafton, brother of Casey Crafton, who died on the American Airlines jet that was crashed into by an Army helicopter, said after the hearing.
Casey Crafton was one of 67 people who died in the collision between American Airlines Flight 5342 and an Army Blackhawk on January 29.
“Specifically, even since the crash, certain safety measures that could have been simply implemented still have not been. Accountability is still not being taken by parties who should be held responsible,” Crafton said in a statement obtained by the Daily Caller.
Members of the aviation subcommittee pressed NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy about her agency’s preliminary report on the incident.
The report found more than 15,000 near misses at Ronald Reagan Washington International Airport (DCA), where the January crash took place, between 2021 and 2024, Homendy testified.
Homendy also testified that that information was readily available to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) prior to the crash.
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“The failure to share details about near mid air collisions, or to perform trend analysis on the history of such incidents, or otherwise take action to address the high number of occurrences, is completely unacceptable,” Tracy Brammeier, a partner at Clifford Law Offices, which represents crash victims’ families, said in a statement provided to the Caller.
“All entities who failed to take action must be held accountable to the victims’ families and to the flying public,” Brammeier concluded.
Brammeier’s firm filed pre-case claims against the federal government over the incident for up to $250 million.
“This crash simply should not have happened,” Robert A. Clifford, founder and senior partner of Clifford Law Offices, said in a statement.
“It is a tragedy the suffering that these families have to go through because no one in the proper authoritative positions bothered to do anything about what was happening at DCA until it was too late,” Clifford continued.
Once the mandatory six month waiting period is over, Clifford plans to file complaints against the FAA and the Army. Other families are pursuing similar claims with the help of Regan Zambri Long, a DC-based injury firm. (RELATED: Families Of DCA Crash Victims Pursue Negligence Claim Against FAA, US Army)
“It took the lives of 67 innocent people for the airlines and everyone else to wake up to the statistics that airlines need to put safety first,” Clifford said. He also blasted FAA acting administrator Chris Rocheleau and Brigadier General Matthew Braman, the US Army Aviation Director, for their “less than forthcoming” testimonies Thursday.
Clifford said they “did their best to obfuscate the information provided to the committee. They failed to accept responsibility and accountability for this needless tragedy and the thousands of other adverse experiences that could have led to additional disasters.”
Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz pressed Braman on his admission that three quarters of their mission rehearsal readiness flights are operated with their transponders off.
“I find that shocking and deeply unacceptable,” Cruz told him, encouraging him to revisit that policy.
“I can tell you, if the Army chooses not to, I have a high level of confidence that Congress will pass legislation mandating that you revisit the policy,” Cruz told him.
Cruz also claimed that Braman’s office refused to provide access to a memo about the policy following a request from Cruz’s office. When Cruz pressed him to commit to sharing the memo, Braman said he’d commit to “reviewing the information and getting what we can to you.”
“That answer needs to be a yes, that you will provide that memo to the committee,” Cruz said, threatening that if Braman did not provide it within 24 hours, a senior Army official would demand that he do so.
For families like Crafton’s, they hope that the increased pressure and media attention will help people keep their lost loved ones in mind. “He was such a giving person and he left everyone in his life a better person for having known him,” Dailey Crafton said of his brother.
“He will be missed by so many, being taken too early from all of us. There is a gaping void in all of our lives that can’t be filled.”
IIRC, a large percentage of the near misses involved helicopters.
Not all the helicopters were military.
Who was in the rest of those helicopters?
Might the answer to that question explain everything...?
1.4 times per day? For the past three years? And it was probably no better before that either.
Let me guess. Democrats on the committee spent their 5 minutes talking about billionaires, Trump, and Signalgate
They confuse near miss with near hit.
When did near hits change to near miss?
I see a “near miss” as hitting something, but almost missing it.. ?!
Brit English messing with American English again?
No confusion. Close proximity events cover both, IIUC.
In any case, find out who the passengers in the helos carrying passengers are, and you will find the reason this travesty has been allowed to continue.
NTSB calls for urgent safety measures following collision over Reagan Airport
I plan never to fly into NYC again. Period. Too dangerous. The last time I flew into JFK I watched out the window and it was terrifying. Looping over the water to land. Ain’t doing it no more.
NTSB calls for permanent ban on helicopter traffic on route 4 when the two close runways are in use.
Based on the Generals testimony in front of Congress it seems the military is going to continue to ignore flight restrictions and continue to operate with transponders off.
So this amounts to nothing.
Hegseth needs to crack some skulls for this to actually improve.
The NTSB can only recommend.
The problem exists because Congress allows it.
Why?
The ATAC allowing visual flight separation was an issue, too.
ATC...
"a preliminary report found that the airport had 1,500 near misses in the past three years"
FAA acting administrator Chris Rocheleau and Brigadier General Matthew Braman, the US Army Aviation Director need to be fired immediately.
Trump’s people need to take action!
*** The report found more than 15,000 near misses at Ronald Reagan Washington International Airport (DCA), where the January crash took place, between 2021 and 2024, Homendy testified.***
This was further down in the article. That extra zero makes a big difference.
14 times per day if you use the 15,000 number mentioned in the title and later in the body of the article.
*** The report found more than 15,000 near misses at Ronald Reagan Washington International Airport (DCA), where the January crash took place, between 2021 and 2024, Homendy testified.***
I wonder if the number of close calls was 1500 or 15,000.
If I didn't have a day job and was paid to sit at home and write, what I'd publish - a 10-year pet project lurking in the background - would frighten the bejesus out of many to prompt a drop in flying passengers.
That statement - after all of what "I" discovered through research for what began as a short social media post - enrages me.
But the big surprise is that it's true and - worse - the public prefers to use floss for the sand in their teeth than face the brutal reality.
Evidence: I'll lay dollars that at least one FReeper will cite statistics on flying safety in this thread.
Years ago, I was acquainted with a senior air traffic controller at Reagan National. He was nearing retirement, and he had worked at other airports as well, notably Dulles as he had settled in NOVA. But he had been at National for years.
He readily agreed that National should be closed. Mind you, this was more than 30 years ago. The runways are too short, and they can’t be extended because of the river. The approaches are over densely developed urban areas, and for noise abatement reasons, a long, slow, twisty approach along the river is necessary. And it’s too busy. He had plenty of scary stories, and he said the routine bending of the rules was an open secret.
But it’s close to downtown and Capitol Hill, and it’s a convenient shuttle station for congressmen who go back and forth to their districts to campaign every weekend, so it stays open.
Anyhow, my acquaintance said the only thing that gave Reagan National a tolerable safety record is that EVERYONE knows it is a very high hazard airport. No one is careless. This is part of the pilots’ drill when they start flying a route that takes them there: be on your toes or you will die.
There are probably other airports around the world in this category. They are the civilian equivalents to aircraft carriers: be sharp or die.
DEI has no place in these environments.
I don’t know whether and how easily Dulles and BWI could pick up National’s load if National were closed, but we should have bitten that bullet years ago.
That’s scary. Between our son flying in/out since he lives in Arlington to use going out to visit 2-3 times a year. We were just out there last week flying in/out of Reagan.
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