FAA Announces ADS-B Out Requirement for Reagan Airport

Speaking during a Senate hearing on the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) preliminary report on the incident, Rocheleau revealed that “effective today,” the FAA will require any aircraft traveling in KDCA Class B airspace to turn on Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) Out transponders.

The report, released earlier this month, urged “immediate action” to prevent a similar accident, to which the FAA responded by barring nonessential helicopter operations at the airport.

Rocheleau said the new measure will apply to all aircraft, including those flown by federal agencies, with exceptions for “very limited circumstances” such as national security missions.

The provision will take effect “immediately” at KDCA. Rocheleau said the FAA is deploying artificial intelligence to identify “hot spots” for fixed-wing and rotorcraft mixed traffic at 21 airports in 10 locations including Boston, Dallas, and Anchorage, Alaska, but it would be “premature” to implement the ADS-B Out requirement elsewhere.

The plan raised a few eyebrows among members of the Senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), for example, voiced concerns about “prolific” exemptions to the rule and questioned why the FAA did not act sooner.

“Acting administrator, you're not building faith in this system of oversight of the FAA,” Cantwell said.

Cantwell and other Senators pointed to striking figures in the NTSB’s report, including a three-year span with 85 “close calls”—incidents where helicopters and commercial aircraft had less than 85 feet of vertical separation—on approach to KDCA.

Jennifer Homendy, chair of the NTSB, said the agency used that data, which came from the FAA, to issue its recommendations. But Rocheleau admitted that “something was missed” during the regulator’s review of the figures and acknowledged that, had it been caught, actions could have been taken to prevent the tragedy.

“Since that time, we've been using new tools available to us—artificial intelligence, machine learning—to be able to scan the tens of millions of data points to be able to do that analysis in a more proactive and, ideally at some point here, predictive way,” Rocheleau said.

The agency was also “aware of the design,” Rocheleau said, of the airspace where the collision occurred—the section of KDCA’s helicopter route 4 that intersects with commercial aircraft attempting to land at runways 15/33. On that portion of the route, which has been permanently closed, the NTSB estimated helicopters and aircraft often had less than 75 feet of separation.

Homendy said the NTSB is also tracking the “potential for equipment malfunction” with ADS-B Out systems that may have impacted the U.S. Army Black Hawk involved in the collision.

“For this accident helicopter, no ADS-B data had been received from an FAA ground station for 730 days prior to the accident, and that was abnormal,” Homendy said.

The NTSB chair said that prompted a review of the Army’s 12th Battalion fleet, which has a total of 25 Black Hawks. All nine UH-60M models transmitted ADS-B Out data when those systems were turned on. But of the fleet’s 16 UH-60Ls, including the accident helicopter, half stopped transmitting ADS-B Out data—even when systems were on—sometime between May and November 2023.

“We don’t know why,” Homendy said. “Five of those started transmitting since the NTSB identified the issue and began working with the Army to try to isolate the reason.”

Rocheleau, asked why the FAA was not aware of the problem, said the agency does not receive helicopter data from the Army. He said the agency would work with other helicopter operators to test and ensure their equipment is functional.

Brigadier General Matthew Braman, representing the Army at the hearing, did not have an explanation for the malfunctions.

“We have protocols for the status of aircraft,” Braman said. “I will have to get back to you…on what the protocol is to ensure that ADS-B Out transmissions outside of the aircraft are being received. That’s something I’ll have to look at.”

Braman said that certain Army helicopters continue to operate without ADS-B Out in KDCA airspace. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), the committee’s chairman, called those operations “shocking” and “deeply unacceptable,” urging the Army to modify its standards.

Braman said the Army has issued interim guidance to raise the approval level for ADS-B Out-off operations from medium-risk to high-risk.

The testimony of Rocheleau, Homendy, and Braman reveals fragmentation in the investigation process.

Braman and Homendy, for example, said the Army and NTSB do not have access to FAA data on close calls involving Army helicopters, which Rocheleau on Thursday committed to share.

Homendy also said the NTSB has been shut out of an FAA-led “D.C. helicopter working group” comprising 17 members, including the Army.

“We have not even been able to identify who is part of the working group firmly and get documents as part of that working group,” Homendy said. “We've requested all of that information because we do want to evaluate what was discussed.”

Rocheleau responded: “We've been working extremely closely together on this investigation, and I'm happy to work with the chair and understand why she hasn't received that information.”

Cruz, meanwhile, said the Army has been stonewalling the release of an August memo titled “ADS-B Out-Off Operations in the National Airspace” and asked Branam to commit to sharing it with the committee.

“I'll commit to reviewing the information and getting what we can to you,” Branam said, to which Cruz responded by issuing a 24-hour ultimatum. Cantwell said she also requested the memo.

The FAA within days implemented the NTSB’s recommendations and began examining other busy airports using AI, a process Rocheleau said will conclude in a few weeks. The acting administrator also noted the FAA’s trial of Starlink satellite terminals to improve air communications and its recent “supercharged” air traffic controller hiring spree amid a shortage of controllers.

The Department of Transportation is soon expected to release a plan to modernize the nation’s air traffic control system. DOT Secretary Sean Duffy this week said an “envy-of-the-world” system could be installed within three years. Earlier this month, he vowed to ask Congress for tens of billions of dollars to support the initiative.

Homendy, meanwhile, said the NTSB is committed to releasing a final report on the KDCA accident in one year.

“One thing…that we are looking at as part of this investigation is our long standing belief that ADS-B In also needs to be mandated by the FAA,” the NTSB chair said.

But Homendy and Rocheleau said they need help to make the necessary changes. Homendy pointed out the NTSB is down to 427 personnel, with about 40 assigned to the KDCA investigation. 

“We will be able to go up to 450,” she said. “But fully staffing the NTSB to accomplish our mission would require hiring between 485 and 500 personnel, which requires resources. So as you consider [fiscal year] 26, it would be helpful.”

Rocheleau echoed Homendy’s comments, while Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) voiced support for directing more resources to the agencies.

“We need to pass appropriation bills and not continue to utilize continuing resolutions,” Moran said.

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