WASHINGTON—The so-called “War Department” led by Trump-picked Pete Hegseth has made sure that every American boarding any kind of flight in the nation will be exposed to the dangers that brought down a passenger jet and helicopter over the Potomac in the nation’s capital, January 29, 2025, killing everyone on board both flights.
Opposition from what President Donald Trump is now calling the “War Department,” formerly the Department of Defense (DOD), grounded a union-backed air safety bill that flew through the Senate in December. The February 24 House vote on the so-called “Rotor Act” was 264-133, leaving it one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed under a special procedure for uncontroversial legislation.
The outcome overcame strong support for the measure by the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department and virtually all unions that represent airline workers, even independent unions. DOD’s opposition swayed a last-minute switch by key House Republicans.
Trump’s War Department said the Rotor Act would force planes to install expensive anti-collision technology. The technology would also give their positions away to enemies, according to the Trump administration.
“As America’s largest transportation labor federation, we welcome Senate passage of the bipartisan Rotor Act, which would preserve air safety provisions implemented after the tragic January mid-air collision,” when a military helicopter, flying too low, crashed into an incoming American Airlines jet over Washington National Airport, TTD President Greg Regan and Secretary-Treasurer Shari Semesberger said last month. “We urge the House to follow suit.”
The Rotor Act was designed to prevent a rerun of the fatal air crash a year ago in the crowded airspace over D.C. The copter, flying out of its assigned lane, and without special radar to warn it of nearby planes—and without telling airport controllers—collided with the jet. Both plunged into the Potomac River, killing all four copter personnel and 63 people aboard the jet.
In an interim report on the crash, days before the vote, the non-partisan investigative National Transportation Safety Board said the tragedy was easily avoidable, had the copter been in its correct lane and had it been armed with advanced ADS-B collision avoidance radar. The Rotor Act would mandate all aircraft install that radar by Dec. 31, 2031.
The NTSB also noted there were 18 near-misses in the crowded skies over National in recent years, and it had made the same recommendation as long ago as 2008. But NTSB can only advocate safety measures. It can’t enforce them. An average of 5,500 aircraft—jetliners, prop planes, private planes, and helicopters—fly through U.S. airspace every day. And that doesn’t count drones.
That left advocacy to TTD and the aircraft unions, including the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the Machinists, the Transport Workers, and the Airline Pilots. All not only backed the Rotor Act but also agitated for keeping the military out of National’s airspace entirely. Survivors of the crash’s victims joined in the lobbying for the Rotor Act.
“The Potomac mid-air collision is the deadliest U.S. airspace accident in more than 20 years,” the unions, led by the Transportation Trades Department, said in their joint letter to lawmakers in early January, after Senate passage of the Rotor Act. “The loss experienced by the passengers, the crew, and their families cannot be legislated.”
“This crash was predictable and preventable, and the only way to avoid another recurrence and honor the lives of those lost is to implement the Rotor Act and its clearly delineated performance standards for ADS-B In as well as the remaining NTSB recommendations.”
Rep. Gabe Amo, D-R.I., who spoke with families of the victims, also strongly backed the Rotor Act.
“For years, there were warnings,” he said. Since 2008, NTSB “has recommended requiring technology to help pilots detect nearby aircraft in real time and avoid collisions.”
“The Rotor Act finally acts on that recommendation” to put ADS-B on all planes, and “aligning military and civilian safety standards, strengthening coordination, and closing dangerous gaps in our aviation system. We must act now to make our skies safer.”
In a separate letter, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association praised the Senate’s bipartisan passage of the Rotor Act. The bill “addresses critical safety issues identified in the aftermath of the mid-air collision…The Rotor Act will enhance safety for commercial, general aviation, and military aircraft, as well as for aircraft crews, passengers, and citizens on the ground.”
But the military’s opposition swayed the key lawmakers. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., voiced the Pentagon’s objections—and led the foes of the Rotor Act. He quoted the Pentagon as saying the system was expensive and that it would give away the positions, speed, and flight paths of sensitive military aircraft.
And House Transportation Committee Chairman Sam Graves, R-Texas, justified the sudden switch by advocating a more comprehensive air safety bill, the Alert Act. It would order airlines to implement all 50 NTSB safety recommendations it made as a result of the D.C. collision, Graves said. The Airline Pilots disagreed.
That Alert Act would not include the collision avoidance radar, the union said. The Rotor Act would.
“This [alternative] bill likely will not mandate such life-saving technology for an expansive portion of aircraft operating into dense commercial airports. We have the data, and the verdict is clear: No more exceptions,” ALPA said. “The Rotor Act got it right on ADS-B. Every aircraft…should have ADS-B In integrated into the flight deck for pilot use.”
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