Overview
- After House passage, the FY2026 defense bill heads to the Senate with Section 373 governing military rotary-wing training in the D.C. Special Flight Rules Area.
- Section 373 requires proximity warnings compatible with airline TCAS for training flights but allows a waiver by a military secretary with Transportation concurrence and a risk assessment.
- NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy says the measure reverses post-crash safety changes, noting TCAS limits at low altitude and that it alerted nearly 20 seconds before the Jan. 29 collision that killed 67 people.
- Mayor Muriel Bowser, the Families of Flight 5342, and Senate Commerce leaders Ted Cruz, Maria Cantwell, Jerry Moran, and Tammy Duckworth call for stripping the provision and adopting stronger standards.
- Advocates urge locking in ADS‑B Out for military aircraft and passing the bipartisan ROTOR Act, citing the current FAA‑DoD ADS‑B agreement and the ongoing NTSB investigation.