By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) – 美国参议院商务委员会计划于2月12日举行听证会，届时美国国家运输安全委员会（NTSB）主席将出席。此前，该机构调查发现，美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）存在一系列系统性失误，导致去年发生的一场灾难性空中相撞事故造成67人死亡。
2025年1月，美国航空公司（American Airlines，股票代码AAL.O）的一架支线喷气机与一架陆军”黑鹰”直升机在罗纳德·里根华盛顿国家机场（DCA）附近相撞，这是自2001年11月以来美国最致命的航空灾难。
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参议院商务委员会将听取NTSB主席詹妮弗·霍门迪（Jennifer Homendy）的证词，议员们希望推动一项航空安全改革法案获得通过，该法案此前在美国众议院陷入停滞。
参议院商务委员会主席特德·克鲁兹（Ted Cruz）表示，他相信众议院将迅速审议这项法案，该法案要求飞机运营商在2031年底前为机队配备一种名为ADS-B的关键飞机跟踪系统，这一系统还将加强对商业喷气机和直升机交通以及商业机场附近飞行路线的监管。
此外，参议院商务委员会周二投票通过了一项提名，同意一名美国航空公司飞行员兼安全官员加入NTSB。约翰·德卢（John DeLeeuw）是安全管理主任兼波音787机长，他将填补阿尔文·布朗（Alvin Brown）的席位。阿尔文·布朗是拜登政府任命的官员，于去年5月被白宫解雇。
NTSB认定，此次事故的原因是FAA允许直升机在没有任何安全措施的情况下接近机场，并与飞机保持分离，同时未能审查相关数据并对将直升机交通调离机场的建议采取行动。
霍门迪表示，机场空中交通管制塔工作人员多次试图提出担忧，但都被”管理层压制…这完全是可以预防的。”
该委员会还指出，陆军安全文化存在缺陷，陆军飞行员未能正确发现并避让民用客机。去年12月，美国司法部表示，由于陆军直升机和FAA空中交通管制员的行为，联邦政府应对此次坠机事故承担责任。
美国国家运输安全委员会表示，自2021年以来，商业飞机与直升机之间横向距离小于1海里、垂直距离小于400英尺的事件超过15,200起，期间发生了85起险些相撞事件。
David Shepardson在华盛顿报道；Aurora Ellis编辑
US Senate committee to hold hearing with NTSB chair on deadly mid-air collision
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee plans to hold a February 12 hearing with the head of the National Transportation Safety Board after the agency found a series of systemic failures by the Federal Aviation Administration led to a devastating mid-air collision that killed 67 people last year.
The January 2025 collision between an American Airlines AAL.O regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) was the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster since November 2001.
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The panel will hear testimony from NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy as lawmakers seek to win approval of an air safety reform bill that has stalled in the U.S. House.
Senate Commerce Committee chair Ted Cruz said he believes the House will quickly take up the bill that would require aircraft operators by the end of 2031 to equip their fleets with a key airplane tracking system known as ADS-B that also boosts oversight of commercial jet and helicopter traffic and flight routes near commercial airports.
Separately, the committee on Tuesday voted to advance the nomination of an American Airlines pilot and safety official to serve on the NTSB. John DeLeeuw, managing director of safety and a Boeing 787 captain, was named to fill the seat of Alvin Brown, an appointee of the Biden administration who was dismissed by the White House in May.
The NTSB determined the accident was caused by the FAA’s decision to allow helicopters to travel close to the airport with no safeguards to separate them from airplanes and its failure to review data and act on recommendations to move helicopter traffic away from the airport.
Homendy said the airport’s air traffic control tower personnel repeatedly sought to raise concerns only to get “squashed by management … This was 100% preventable.”
The board also cited failings in the Army safety culture and the Army pilot’s failure to properly see and avoid the passenger airplane. In December, the Justice Department said the federal government was liable in the crash due to the actions of the Army helicopter and the FAA air traffic controller.
The National Transportation Safety Board said last year that since 2021, there were more than 15,200 occurrences between commercial airplanes and helicopters with lateral separation distance of less than 1 nautical mile and vertical separation of less than 400 feet, and 85 close-call incidents during that period.
Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Aurora Ellis
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