Speaking at an air traffic control conference in Washington, DC yesterday, Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Cruz revealed the committee, which is responsible for aviation, will introduce a new act, the so-called Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform (ROTOR) bill. Although the content of the bill has not yet been made public, Cruz said it will review helicopter routes near airports not only in the Washington area but across the United States. Something that the FAA has been doing since March of this year, with some changes already in place (See HERE for more details).
Cruz has been a vocal critic of the Army’s practice of flying with ADS-B systems deactivated since the collision between an Army UH-60 and a CRJ700 near Washington Reagan Airport in January. “(The ROTOR Act) will close the regulatory loophole that allowed Army helicopters to fly without ADS-B turned on,” Cruz said. “And it will require the Army Inspector General to review systemic breakdowns that may have contributed to the crash, similar to an FAA audit that the Department of Transportation Inspector General had already agreed to conduct.”
Image: Sikorsky
