Sunflower State News

U.S. Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) participated in a press conference on Tuesday, marking six months since the crash of American Airlines flight 5343 near Washington, D.C., which resulted in 67 fatalities, including seven residents of Kansas. The event was held to support the introduction of the ROTOR Act, a legislative proposal led by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), aimed at addressing gaps in aviation safety oversight.

Marshall joined Senator Cruz, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy, and Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) at the event. The proposed legislation responds to concerns raised after a midair collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines flight 5342.

During his remarks, Marshall addressed the importance of preventing future tragedies:

“Thank you, Senator Cruz, for your leadership and for inviting us to participate, and to all my fellow speakers up here, thank you. Good morning, everybody. On January 29, 2025, American Airlines flight 5343, from Wichita to DCA, tragically crashed, claiming 67 lives, including seven Kansans: Bob and Lori Schrock, Pete ‘PJ’ Diaz, Lindsey Fields, Grace Maxwell, Kiah Duggins, and Dustin Miller.

“Their loss weighs heavily, and we owe it to them to ensure their deaths were not in vain. That night I shared many of the same thoughts that so many of the family members had. Why was the helicopter in that airspace? Was it flying too high? Why did its transponder fail to warn the jet or air traffic control?

“While we’re still awaiting some of those answers Congress needs to act swiftly. Our proposal legislation led by Senator Cruz mandates ADSB technology on aircraft in key airspaces and for damn sure they need to turn them on. They need to turn them on when they’re in those airspaces. The military if they’re going to be in the airspace they need to turn on their transponders.

“This legislation mandates the technology aircraft and key airspace studies barring rotorcraft from DCA during final approaches and orders an army audit of FAA coordination pilot training and ADSB use. These demands were asked for and driven by the victims’ families. I hope they know that their voices were listened to and that they’re being heard. And I appreciate the families staying at this. And no law can bring back the 67 people who we lost but we can strengthen aviation safety to prevent such a tragedy again.

“Again I’m trying to think what was missed today but I just want to reflect back to a conversation I had with the mayor of Wichita the day after. I said “What can I do? What can I tell Wichita?”, and she said ‘The number one thing is you could tell them we won’t have helicopters in that airspace anymore.’ And I reached out to Secretary Duffy and Secretary of Defense Hegseth and they stopped and grounded them all. They stopped them from being in that air that day and I hope we continue to have that commitment until Congress does does her job.

“Echoing what Senator Moran said The One Big Beautiful Bill which is now law had $7 billion $12 billion for modernizing air traffic control which was long overdue. The other response I see the Trump administration doing is accelerating air traffic controllers going through the system. The Secretary could speak more to that than I can but from what I understand over 3 000 people are in some point of training to become air traffic controllers.

“We’ve accelerated the process It’s still a very rigorous process to get in the system added bonuses doing everything we can to get people in the seats that we need to prevent a tragedy like this again Thank you everybody.”

The ROTOR Act includes requirements such as mandatory use of ADSB technology on aircraft operating within critical areas of U.S. airspace as well as restrictions regarding rotorcraft presence near Washington National Airport during final approaches.