House passes aviation safety bill in response to deadly midair collision near D.C.

Politics House passes aviation safety bill in response to deadly midair collision near D.C. By Caitlin Yilek, Caitlin Yilek Politics Reporter Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation. Read Full Bio Caitlin Yilek, Olivia Rinaldi Olivia Rinaldi White House reporter Olivia Rinaldi is a White House reporter at CBS News. She covered President Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and was previously an associate producer for "CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell" and a broadcast associate for "Face the Nation." She is based in Washington, D.C. Read Full Bio Olivia Rinaldi April 14, 2026 / 8:03 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Washington — The House on Tuesday passed its version of an aviation safety bill, months after it rejected separate legislation that cleared the Senate with unanimous support and angered families of the victims of a deadly midair crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. In a 396 to 10 vote, the House approved the ALERT Act, which came in response to the January 2025 collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and an Army Black Hawk that killed all 67 people aboard both aircraft. The ALERT Act would require all aircraft, including military planes, that fly near busy airports to install safety instruments that can receive data about the locations of other aircraft in the vicinity. Most planes already have technology that broadcasts their locations, called ADS-B Out, but are not equipped with collision-avoidance technology referred to as ADS-B In.If American Airlines 5342 was equipped with ADS-B In, it could have prevented the fatal accident, according to the National Transportation Safety Board and victims' families. The bipartisan bill would also require military aircraft to install collision-prevention...