Senate committee may subpoena US Army for helicopter safety memo

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Senate Commerce Committee may subpoena the U.S. Army to obtain a report detailing why it routinely failed to use a safety system known as ADS-B on helicopter flights around Reagan Washington National Airport, its chair said on Wednesday.

An army Black Hawk helicopter did not have the system operating during a routine training mission when it collided with an American Airlines regional jet on January 29 near the airport, killing 67 people.

The army last week refused a request from senators for the memo.

Committee chair Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, and Senator Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the panel, had demanded the army turn over the report by Friday.

Cruz said if the army continued to withhold the document, the committee planned to issue a subpoena.

"It begs the question, what doesn't the army want Congress and the American people to know about why it was flying partially blind?" Cruz said. "This is not acceptable."

The army did not immediately comment Wednesday but said earlier this week that it would respond directly to the lawmakers.

ADS-B, or automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast, is an advanced surveillance technology that transmits an aircraft's location.

Cruz said if civilians were to die in another collision between a passenger jet and a Black Hawk helicopter that was not using the safety system "those deaths will be on the army's hands."

Civilian airplanes are required to use ADS-B, but the Federal Aviation Administration in 2019 gave the military an exemption in rare circumstances. Senators say the military has rarely if ever used ADS-B in Washington training flights.

The FAA said on Monday it sent notices last week to NASA, the Justice Department, the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security requiring ADS-B use near Reagan National except in cases such as "active national security missions."

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Joe Bavier)