March 11, 2026
Dear Representative:
On behalf the undersigned labor organizations including those that represent the pilots, flight attendants, and steamfitters who lost their lives in the mid-air collision of the military helicopter and PSA Flight 5342, we urge you to ensure that any piece of legislation, including the ALERT Act, properly implements the recommendations of the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) Final Report for the crash. Congress must ensure all commercial aircraft operators equip their fleets with integrated Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast In (ADS-B In) technology and that military aircraft in commercial high-density airspace transmit their position.
The 2025 Potomac River mid-air collision was a preventable accident. The NTSB’s investigation provided analysis regarding the failures that led to the crash and clear remedies to prevent future tragedies and needless loss of life. Senators Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell’s bipartisan ROTOR Act (S. 2503) mandates the core requirements of the NTSB’s report regarding technology for pilot awareness and reasonable standards to ensure military helicopters transmit out in high-density airspace while respecting the national security needs of our military. The ROTOR Act passed the Senate unanimously and received overwhelming bipartisan support (264-133) on February 24, 2026, during a suspension vote despite failing by a single vote.
While we welcome the House’s ALERT Act (H.R. 7613), we cannot support the bill until it sufficiently addresses multiple NTSB recommendations, including those for ADS-B In and military rotorcraft operations. The NTSB in a letter to Congress spelled out these deficiencies in detail and, like the Board, we agree that meaningful changes are required to honor the victims of the crash and protect airline passengers and crew. The NTSB pointedly recommends that “all aircraft operating in airspace where Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast Out (ADS-B Out) is required to also be equipped with ADS-B In with a cockpit display of traffic information.” Simply put, all commercial aircraft must have integrated ADS-B In.
This requirement seeks to resolve a core contributing factor to the crash and many midair collisions prior: pilots cannot avoid traffic they cannot see. During the midair collision, the pilots operating the commercial jet aircraft were unable to properly see the helicopter until one second prior to the collision. If the jet had been properly equipped with integrated ADS-B In, the crash would likely not have occurred because the pilots would have had nearly one minute to clearly establish the helicopter’s location on their display and take corrective action.
The ALERT Act allows for a “technology agnostic approach” for ill-defined “collision mitigation technologies” that could result in the FAA permitting technologies that do not provide pilots with substantial advanced warning of the presence and position of potential colliding aircraft. Instead of an ADS-B In mandate, the ALERT Act further complicates the deployment of any ADS-B In technology by subjecting the rulemaking to an industry-driven “negotiated rulemaking” that could allow industry to undermine technology deployment, exclude stakeholders, and allow for a less transparent process. The ALERT Act also grants extensive waivers (“alternative means of compliance”) for industry and does not require performance standards sufficient to ensure technology is integrated into the flight deck, which would ensure a panel mounted display that works with visual and audio alerts to assist pilots and prevent mid-air collisions. Instead, the ALERT Act would allow iPads, electronic flight bags, or so-called “plug-and-play” devices that the NTSB Report found would divert pilot attention from cockpit instruments and may inhibit audio alerts. The ROTOR Act does not suffer these deficiencies. The ROTOR Act provides a well-tailored alternative means of compliance for smaller aircraft, including general aviation operations.
If projected traffic growth and new entrant operations materialize as forecasted at commercial airports, then the entire aviation community must equip proactively, not reactively. Failing to do so risks repeating the DCA mid-air scenario where high volumes and mixed operations proved deadly, or otherwise forces significant operational restrictions on existing air traffic and new entrants to maintain safety with current equipage.
It is also critical that any legislation eliminate loopholes that allow military aircraft and other federal agency aircraft to operate both in the National Capital Region and in busy airspace across the National Airspace System without ADS-B Out transmitting – a technology that broadcasts an aircraft’s precise location in civil airspace. The ALERT Act simply tasks DOD to require only military helicopter training flights in the National Capital Region broadcast using ADS-B Out or a similar technology with exceptions and does not mandate that such flights be required to broadcast out nationwide in other high-density, mixed-traffic airspace. The ALERT Act doesn’t end ADS-B Out transmission loopholes for other types of flights like the ROTOR Act and also allows the Secretary of any military department to waive requirements for ADS-B Out, Mode S, or Mode C interrogations (essentially allowing them to turn off their transponder). Responsible ADS-B Out transmission to strengthen aviation safety should be clearly mandated by statute rather than be subject to broad and subjective military discretion and waivers, and should apply nationwide, which the ALERT Act does not provide for. These loopholes create continued safety risk in our skies and must be closed
The Potomac mid-air collision is the deadliest U.S. airspace accident in more than 20 years. This crash was preventable. The NTSB has recommended ADS-B technology be equipped and operational on aircraft for nearly two decades and the dangers posed by helicopter traffic in congested airspace, like DCA, have long been known by regulators. The only way to prevent another recurrence of a midair collision and honor the lives of those lost is to mandate integrated ADS-B In with a cockpit display of traffic information and close the ADS-B Out helicopter loophole for civilian airspace.
We look forward to continuing to work with the House to strengthen aviation safety and prevent future accidents.
Sincerely,
Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA)
American Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO)
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA)
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM)
International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT)
Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, AFL-CIO (PASS)
Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD)
Transport Workers Union of America (TWU)
United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada (UA)