ICYMI: Chairman Cruz Joins Families of Flight 5342 to Call for Aviation Safety Legislation
To watch the full press conference, click HERE.
To watch a recap video of the press conference, click HERE.
To watch Chairman Cruz’s remarks, click HERE.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) joined the Families of Flight 5342 in a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday as they reiterated calls for Congress to pass aviation safety legislation following the January 29 2025 collision between an American Airlines flight and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed 67 people.
As Chairman Cruz stated in his remarks: “I don’t want to be standing here in a year with another 67 families, with another accident of people’s lives that were taken because Congress couldn’t get the job done. I commend the families. Losing your loved ones the way you did, you carry that weight and that pain for the rest of your life. I commend you for taking that pain and saying, ‘Let’s use it to try to force change, to protect some other family, some other little girl, some other little boy, some husband, some wife, some mom, some dad.’ We can do this. We will do this. We are going to pass bipartisan legislation that mandates ADS-B In for aircraft, that prevents another one of these accidents from happening, and that also ensures real accountability.”
In February 2025, Chairman Cruz and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) introduced the ROTOR Act, which would enact a long-standing recommendation from the NTSB: that all aircraft be equipped to receive location signals through “ADS-B In,” a capability widely used by many general aviation pilots but not currently mandated for any aircraft. At the press conference, National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy emphasized that ADS-B In technology would have prevented the January 29, 2025, crash, as Chairman Cruz has stated numerous times.
The ROTOR Act unanimously passed the Senate in December 2025 and was just one vote shy of receiving the two-thirds vote necessary to pass the House of Representatives and head to the President’s desk.
Leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee are actively working on a bicameral, bipartisan compromise between the ROTOR and ALERT Acts.
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