Congressman DeSaulnier Statement on Midair Collision in the Washington D.C. Area

“I am deeply saddened by the tragic midair collision in the D.C. area and my thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their loved ones. As a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Aviation, I will be closely following the investigation into how this happened. We should all learn from and respond to this tragedy by making improvements to protect the flying public rather than making cruel and baseless claims about the qualifications of any aviation or airport personnel.”

Since the near-miss incident at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) in 2017 when an arriving Air Canada flight came dangerously close to landing on a taxiway occupied by four aircraft loaded with more than 1,000 passengers, Congressman DeSaulnier has been working with experts in the field to improve aviation safety, culminating in authoring the Safe Landings Act. Provisions of this bill were included in the most recent Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act, including provisions to require the FAA to implement systems to alert pilots and air traffic controllers if a plane is not properly aligned to land on a runway, create a Task Force on Human Factors in Aviation Safety to review, and provide recommendations on pilot operations and training and to increase protections from near-misses and safety risks.