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- 11 February 2007
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Wow, NTSB chair Jessica Hommendy just (Thursday) trashed Section 373 of the National Defense Authorisation Act for rolling back the airspace safety changes made in the wake of January's UH-60 vs CRJ700 crash in the Potomac while the CRJ was on approach to Ronald Reagan National.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFAyD2Xmxpc
NTSB's letter to the defense committee heads: https://www.ntsb.gov/news/Documents/National Defense Authorization Act.pdf (nb, wouldn't open on my Kindle, fine on PC)
TLDR: Section 373 allows Sec Def, the service Secretaries and any Flag officer to allow training missions in DC airspace without ADSB-Out, but with TCAS. Which is a recipe for another Potomac incident because TCAS is inhibited below 900ft AGL, which is where the Potomac crash happened.
NTSB doesn't normally do politics*, because in the normal state of affairs it doesn't have politicians actively undermining its work.
Meanwhile the Commerce Committee has moved bilaterally to strike Section 373 and replace it with the ROTOR bill mandating transponder use.
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/202...ile-amendment-to-strike-section-373-from-ndaa
* It just has a long, long list of safety changes it's recommended and no one has done anything about and sighs heavily about it on a regular basis. Rolling back an in-place change is something new.
NTSB's letter to the defense committee heads: https://www.ntsb.gov/news/Documents/National Defense Authorization Act.pdf (nb, wouldn't open on my Kindle, fine on PC)
TLDR: Section 373 allows Sec Def, the service Secretaries and any Flag officer to allow training missions in DC airspace without ADSB-Out, but with TCAS. Which is a recipe for another Potomac incident because TCAS is inhibited below 900ft AGL, which is where the Potomac crash happened.
NTSB doesn't normally do politics*, because in the normal state of affairs it doesn't have politicians actively undermining its work.
Meanwhile the Commerce Committee has moved bilaterally to strike Section 373 and replace it with the ROTOR bill mandating transponder use.
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/202...ile-amendment-to-strike-section-373-from-ndaa
* It just has a long, long list of safety changes it's recommended and no one has done anything about and sighs heavily about it on a regular basis. Rolling back an in-place change is something new.
