(The Center Square) – A Virginia congressman is leading more than 80 of his colleagues in penning a letter to President Donald Trump to “prevent and reverse” actions they say could hamper aviation safety improvements.
Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., representing the congressional district that includes Reagan National Airport, is leading his colleagues in pressuring Trump to “present a comprehensive response” to last month’s mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and Army helicopter over the Potomac River.
The congressmen are urging the president to lift hiring freezes and restore “any frozen funding that would affect investigations and air safety,” hire more air traffic controllers and reinstate the Department of Transportation’s inspector general and key aviation safety personnel.
The lawmakers wrote in part, “A diverse number of federal entities are working at maximum capacity in the aftermath of the crash to conduct a thorough independent investigation of the incident and to find appropriate solutions to prevent a reoccurrence. We must ensure their response is not compromised by limited resources and uncertainty, but that they are supported in their work.”
The lawmakers are requesting the Trump administration lift any hiring freezes affecting federal entities supporting the recovery, investigation or “preventable solutions to the incident,” including the National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration, FBI and Government Accountability Office – among others.
In addition, they ask the president to immediately increase the hiring of “skilled” air traffic controllers. They added they have “heard concerns about air traffic controller understaffing” at Reagan National.
They say the airport only had 25 air traffic controllers fully certified to work at the time of the collision, an increase from 19 in 2023 but below the airport’s recommended target of 28.
The lawmakers are requesting “full assurance and confirmation” that the entities they highlighted will not have “critical appropriated funds revoked or withheld,” including programmatic funds or Airport Improvement Program grants.”
The president and transportation officials have vowed to hire the most qualified individuals involving transportation safety. Following the collision, Trump railed against allegations that diversity, equity and inclusion were prioritized in hiring air traffic controllers over merit.
Preliminary reports from the NTSB appear to focus on the helicopter’s operations at the time of the collision, noting that it was flying above the permitted flight ceiling, had turned off a key advanced tracking device and may have been using night vision.
The Jan. 29 mid-air collision claimed the lives of 67 people. The victims from both the jet and helicopter have been recovered, in addition to the wreckages of both aircraft.