Family members of D.C. plane crash victims push for aviation safety reform amid government shutdown
Rachel Feres lost four family members in a fatal plane crash near Washington, DC, earlier this year. She said that after the accident, flying would never be the same for her and that government shutdown gave her pause when she came to Capitol Hill this week to advocate for security reforms.
“I’m confident that everyone who goes to work is doing their best to keep us safe, but it’s just not a functional way to govern,” she told CBS News. “We deserve better than this. We deserve for our essential systems, our transportation systems, to remain open and for the people responsible for keeping them safe to be paid on time and for this not to become a football game.”
Amid congressional efforts to reform the nation’s aviation system, Feres and other members of the victims’ families met with lawmakers and Jennifer Homendy, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board. The cousin of Feres Peter Livingstonhis wife Donna and daughters Alydia and Everly died when an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Eagle flight over the Potomac River in January.
“Our message is that aviation safety reform is important,” Feres said. “This is important to the American people. This is a nonpartisan issue. This is an American issue, and we all deserve to know that when we or our loved ones get on a plane, we get off the other side.”
Feres and other members of the victims’ families met with Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and the panel’s top Democrat, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state.
“I have a lot of confidence in the members on both sides of the aisle who are working hard to ensure that this remains a top priority, but I think any time, obviously, the government is shut down, we know that infrastructure projects are delayed and we know that the members of the government who are on the job, who are TSA agents and air traffic controllers, may not get paid, and that’s a concern for all of us.”
THE NTSB investigation The January crash continues.
The Black Hawk helicopter was flying without any activated equipment to track the aircraft. The military has a waiver that essentially exempts it from being required to use the equipment.
In July, Cruz introduced legislation that would require all aircraft to use the equipment, known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast, or ADS-B.
A Cruz spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News that he has been working with victims’ families on the bill since January.
“The Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Reform Act represents an important step forward in aviation safety reform by requiring all aircraft, military and civilian, to use both ADS-B Out and ADS-B In and seeks to hold the military accountable for failures that may have contributed to the accident,” the spokesperson said. “He is committed to ensuring that another accident does not happen again.”
