Articles

Originally published in: WJLA 7

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (D - Va.) and U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D - Va.) held a roundtable with local and national aviation experts Friday to discuss aviation safety and safety at Reagan National Airport (DCA) following January's deadly mid-air collision.

“The challenges that we all know is that air traffic in the greater Washington area is extraordinarily crowded," Warner told members of the roundtable.

Former pilots and air traffic controllers were among those invited to speak, as well as leadership from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA). Matthew Collins, whose brother Christopher was one of 67 people killed when an Army Blackhawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines plane, spoke on behalf of the victims.

“How do we honor these 67 people and how do we prevent something like this from happening again," Matthew said of his mission after the deadly crash.

Roundtable members discussed the crowded air traffic in the metropolitan Washington area and technological standards that could be put in place to help prevent future crashes, including requiring both ADS-B In and Out technologies in the national airspace so aircraft can both transmit their location out as well as determine incoming locations of other aircraft.

ADS-B In is not required for aircraft in the national airspace, but legislation on Capitol Hill is seeking to change that. Former pilot turned flight safety manager Kent Lewis supports that proposal.

“Safety first and safety always and safety last, so the more protections you can give yourself," he told 7News.

Experts also talked about the need for more air traffic controllers as part of their proposed push for modernization.

“There’s not one thing that has to be done," Jack Potter, president and CEO of MWAA, told the roundtable. "Everything has to be done, because any one of the things described today could lead to an unfortunate accident.”

For Matthew, it has been hard to wait for the government to take action to enact sweeping changes like the ones proposed Friday.

"I don't understand it," he told reporters following the roundtable. “Everybody does fly. And you think the amount of flying the politicians do, that they're up in the skies every day, especially in this airport, the DCA airport or Dulles, you think that this would be a super priority for them to get this done as quickly as possible. Secretary Duffy has told us that it's going to take three and a half, four years to implement all these changes, and I'm holding him to it."

“I just hope and pray that change does happen and that another family doesn't have to live through this again," Matthew said.