A plane takes off from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport as Roberto Marquez of Dallas places flowers at a memorial of crosses he erected for the 67 victims of a midair collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines jet, in Arlington, Va., on Feb. 1, 2025. Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo
The House on Feb. 24 rejected a Senate bill that intended to prevent future midair collisions, like the one over Washington’s Potomac River last year, by mandating the use of key location transmitting technology on all aircraft operating near busy airports.
That January 2025 crash between a regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter killed all 67 people on board both aircraft, and renewed the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) calls for implementing Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) systems in all aircraft, which the agency has been recommending since 2008.