WASHINGTON — Greg Regan and Shari Semelsberger, President and Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD), issued this statement objecting to Section 373 of the House-passed National Defense Authorization Act. Section 373 rolls back critical aviation safety protections that were implemented in response to the mid-air collision of Flight 5342 and a military helicopter on a training flight near Washington National Airport in January:
“We join our flying partners and federal safety regulators in expressing outrage over Section 373’s rollback of critical aviation safety protections that were implemented following the mass casualty of Flight 5342. As America’s largest transportation labor federation, representing the nation’s skilled aviation workers, ensuring the safety of the workforce and the flying public is core to our mission.
“The loss of Flight 5342, and the 67 souls on both that aircraft and the military helicopter, was a preventable tragedy of incalculable magnitude. In the aftermath of the accident, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) took initial action by signing an agreement with the Department of Defense (DOD) to provide greater transparency regarding the location of military aircraft in D.C. airspace, specifically requiring the use of automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) out technology.
“The rollback of this safety provision undermines the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) recommendation to deconflict airplane and helicopter traffic in D.C. airspace. We are gravely concerned that Section 373 will make our airspace less safe and decrease the flying public’s confidence in the safety of our commercial aviation system.
“The Senate must remove Section 373 from the final Defense Authorization bill and should support the bipartisan Cantwell-Cruz amendment to do just that. We support efforts to enact into law the comprehensive and bipartisan ROTOR Act, which would close the loophole that allowed military aircraft to fly in domestic airspace without communicating their position and implement additional safety measures to protect the flying public. To those who would risk the safety of our skies after this year of incredible loss, we say this: never again.”
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