Lawmakers pressed federal aviation administration officials on how an Army helicopter crashed into a passenger jet near a Washington airport earlier this year and what warning signs were missed that could have avoided the tragedy.

Leaders of the National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration and the military were in front of the Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday to dive deeper into the crash near Reagan National Airport that killed everyone on each aircraft. The NTSB released its initial findings of the crash earlier this month but have not yet identified a cause.

Investigators are in the early stages of determining the cause of the crash and will likely take over a year to deliver a final report. But Thursday’s hearing raised questions about the preliminary assessments of the deadliest aviation disaster in more than a decade and what is being done to avoid others in the future.

The NTSB is examining whether the helicopter had accurate altitude readings in the moments before the crash and whether the crew had heard instructions from air traffic controllers.

The crash has spurred pledges from President Donald Trump to overhaul the nation’s outdated aviation safety systems and to increase hiring of air traffic controllers. Lawmakers have proposed a series of bills aimed at shoring up safety protocols, filling budget gaps and ensuring aviation safety agencies are conducting sufficient oversight.

Safety officials were also questioned about an alarming frequency of close calls between planes and helicopters in the years prior to the crash. Helicopters have been permanently restricted from flying the same route near the airport since the crash through an FAA order after the NTSB’s preliminary report identified it as an “urgent safety recommendation.”

The NTSB said there were clear warning signs leading up to the disaster with thousands of near collisions at Reagan between 2021 and 2024. Investigators found 15,214 “near miss events” between 2021 and 2024, where aircraft came within a nautical mile of colliding with a vertical separation of less than 400 feet. There were 85 incidents where they were separated by less than 1,500 feet with a vertical separation of less than 200 feet.

“Why did the FAA not act? Why did the FAA not act on 15,000 reports of dangerous proximity. How were these helicopter routes allowed to remain when alarm bells were literally going off in the towers? This lack of oversight must change,” Sen. Marie Cantwell, D-Wash, said.

NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy has told lawmakers the FAA should have spotted that collision alarms had been going off inside cockpits and made changes. The FAA has launched a review its data to try to identify safety threats.

“There does seem to be an issue with identifying emergency emerging trends,” Homendy said.

Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau agreed the agency has progress to make when it comes to utilizing data to improve safety, but stressed flying is still the safest way to travel.

“The professionals at the FAA take their jobs seriously and strive to ensure safety every day. But the fact of the matter is that we have to do better,” Rocheleau said. “We have to identify trends, we have to get smarter about how we use data, and when we put corrective actions in place, we must execute them.”

Rocheleau also said the agency is working to address a nationwide air traffic controller shortage and had seen some initial success from its recent move to “supercharge” the hiring process. FAA is pushing to hire an additional 2,000 controllers this year and had received 10,000 applications during the hiring surge announced last month.

Several lawmakers questioned Brig. Gen. Matthew Braman, the Army’s head of aviation, for continuing to fly over the nation’s capital with a system broadcasting their locations turned off during missions. The data, referred to as “ADS-B out,” allows air traffic controllers to track a helicopter’s location.

Braman said the Army has changed its policies for when aircraft have to transmit their location but that many helicopters can fly without it on.

“I find that shocking and deeply unacceptable, and I want to encourage the Army right now to revisit that policy and to revisit that policy today. And I can tell you, if the Army chooses not to, I have a high level of confidence that Congress will pass legislation mandating that you revisit the policy,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who chairs the full committee.

Cruz also said he found it “deeply disturbing” that the Secret Service and Navy had triggered numerous collision alarms in planes around the airport because they were testing anti-drone technology using a similar frequency, which came despite a warning from the FAA against it.

Have a news tip? Contact Austin Denean at atdenean@sbgtv.com or at x.com/austindenean.