The Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Jennifer Homendy, has described proposed legislation that would reduce safety in the skies of Washington DC as “shameful”.
On December 10, 2025, Homendy held a combatant press conference and wrote to the Senate and House Armed Services Committees to vehemently oppose sections of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would allow military aircraft to operate without ADS-B.
ADS-B is an advanced surveillance technology that provides an aircraft’s location to air traffic control and other aircraft pilots.
In Homendy’s letter she wrote that provisions in the NDAA would “roll back broadcast requirements to the very conditions that existed at the time of the [PSA Airlines-Black Hawk] accident”.
Following the fatal accident in January 2025 when a PSA Airlines regional jet collided with a US Black Hawk the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Department of Transportation entered into an agreement requiring military aircraft within the DC airspace to broadcast their positions ADS-B Out.
The NDAA doesn’t fix what failed on January 29th.
Same risks. Same gaps.
Different bill.#SaferSkiesForAll pic.twitter.com/wkX0FERqWU— FamiliesofFlight5342 (@famofflight5342) December 10, 2025
“We should be working together in partnership to prevent the next accident, not inviting history to repeat itself by recreating the same conditions that were in place on January 29th,” Homendy said.
Homendy added that the new rule proposal was a “significant safety setback” that the NTSB was not consulted on.
“It’s a safety whitewash. If it sounds like I’m mad, I am mad. This is shameful,” said Homendy during her press conference.
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, released a joint statement criticizing the inclusion of a provision in the NDAA “widening a loophole for military helicopters”.
“As drafted, the NDAA protects the status quo, allowing military aircraft to keep flying in DC airspace under different rules and with outdated transmission requirements. This comes as Pentagon data shows a spike in military aircraft accidents since 2020,” wrote Chairman Ted Cruz and Ranking Member Maria Cantwell.
The Senate Commerce Committee has been working towards establishing the Rotor Act, a bipartisan bill that closes the “dangerous exemption” that allows military aircraft to operate in domestic skies without communicating their position.
In a statement, members of the Armed Services Committees said they “care deeply about and are fully committed to ensuring aviation safety”.
Homendy said that the NTSB investigation into the DCA crash that killed 67 people is partly focused on “overall limitations and gaps in the traffic awareness and collision avoidance technologies such as ADS-B” to both the Black Hawk and PSA Airlines aircraft.
