Latest news with #AutomaticDependentSurveillance–Broadcast
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Moran asks federal officials to keep airspace restrictions at D.C. airport in place
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran demanded commitments from federal officials during hearings Thursday to keep airspace safe at Reagan Washington National Airport, the site of a deadly collision in January. (Kansas Reflector screen capture of U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran's YouTube channel) TOPEKA — U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran pressed federal officials Wednesday on how they intend to ensure safety at the Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C., in the wake of a January crash between a passenger plane from Wichita and an Army helicopter that left no survivors. Moran, a Kansas Republican, questioned U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Federal Aviation Administration administrator nominee Bryan Bedford at separate committee hearings Wednesday on whether they would commit to keeping in place restrictions on non-essential helicopter flights around the D.C. airport. 'It's my understanding, from information from the Army, that since Jan. 29, seven flights have taken off and landed at the Pentagon,' Moran said to Hegseth. 'Six of those flights occurred during periods of high volume at DCA. One of those aircraft caused two different commercial flights to abort landing on May 1, and since this latest incident, I understand that all flights have been halted.' Since the January crash, Moran has pushed for aviation reforms, introducing legislation that mandates in busy airspace the use of Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast, or ADS-B, which automatically transmits an aircraft's location to nearby pilots once per second. The legislation also removes the possibility for pilots to opt out of using ADS-B. Moran introduced that legislation after close calls at the same airport where the crash took place. The Pentagon, which is less than two miles away from Reagan National as the crow flies, halted military helicopter flights near the airport. The legislation has been in a committee awaiting action since it was introduced in early May. Moran wants the flight restrictions in place until the FAA can come up with a safe route, if there is one. Hegseth, in response, said no authorization for VIP or convenience flights exists in that area. 'You have our assurance that I'm working with (Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy) very closely to make sure that the only flights that would be — even in a modified path — would be those that are necessary and are authorized,' Hegseth said. Moran sits on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, where he questioned Hegseth, and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, where he requested a commitment from Bedford to maintain safety restrictions. 'My understanding is the FAA is supreme when it comes to the control of the airspace,' Bedford said. 'But we want to be good partners with the Department of Defense, and we have protocols on how to do that — multiple protocols, as I understand.' The FAA creates military operating areas, which include restricted and prohibited spaces, and line of fire space and alert zones, and determines the airspace classifications around airports. The busiest airports, like Reagan, are Class B airspace. Bedford said the FAA can accommodate the U.S. Department of Defense's needs, but he added, 'we can't have this mixed-use traffic in Class B airspace.'
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
FAA moves to protect aircraft owners private information
By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it was making it easier for airplane owners to keep information private like their name and address after Congress approved legislation over privacy concerns. The FAA said that starting on Friday, private aircraft owners and operators can electronically request that the agency withhold their aircraft registration information from public view. Social media accounts have used FAA registry information and Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast data to track private planes used by celebrities like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and singer Taylor Swift. Some websites or social media bots track numerous planes used by well-known politicians and entertainers including Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, Harrison Ford, Kim Kardashian and Oprah Winfrey. Some sites seek to highlight the carbon emissions footprint of celebrities who regularly travel by private plane. In February 2024, media outlets reported a lawyer for Swift sent a cease and desist letter to a college student that tracked Swift's jet movements and posted regular social media updates. Twitter -- now known as X -- suspended the creator of an account tracking Musk's private jet in real-time soon after Musk bought Twitter. The FAA said it will seek comment, including whether removing the information would affect the ability of stakeholders to perform necessary functions, such as maintenance, safety checks, and regulatory compliance. The agency said it is also evaluating whether to default to withholding the personally identifiable information of private aircraft owners and operators from the public aircraft registry and provide a way for owners to download their data if needed.
Reuters
28-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
FAA moves to protect aircraft owners private information
March 28 (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it was making it easier for airplane owners to keep information private like their name and address after Congress approved legislation over privacy concerns. The FAA said that starting on Friday, private aircraft owners and operators can electronically request that the agency withhold their aircraft registration information from public view. Social media accounts have used FAA registry information and Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast data and to track private planes used by celebrities like Elon Musk and Taylor Swift. The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Congested Airspace Near Army Training Ground Made D.C. Plane Crash ‘Inevitable'
Pilots and planespotters have taken to social media to share their views about the causes of the fatal air crash in Washington D.C., with some citing frustration about widespread sharing of conspiracy theories. One user of r/flying, a popular Reddit forum for the aviation industry, said they believed the fatal crash was 'inevitable' because of how busy the skies were around the airport. OSINTtechnical, a D.C.-based plane spotter, posted a widely shared thread on X, which said, 'For many in the D.C.-area flying community, the crash tonight wasn't a matter of if, but when.' 'It's the first place I expected something like this to happen, because DCA [Ronald Reagan Airport] is extremely complicated,' wrote one commenter on Reddit, whose profile said they have experience flying large commercial airliners. 'For some reason they allow military helicopters to pass by... hundreds of feet from a runway,' they added. The air crash involved an American Airlines jet, which collided with a U.S. Army helicopter while it was on approach to Ronald Reagan Airport. The helicopter was operating from Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and had the callsign PAT25, indicating it was part of the Priority Air Transport mission that provides VIP transport. The helicopters are a common sight over Washington, D.C. Overworked air traffic controllers and an overtaxed airport combined with military traffic from helicopters 'makes this feel like this was an inevitability,' wrote another user under the name paynesvilletoss on r/flying. The Daily Beast reached out to several of the Reddit users for further comment and to verify their credentials, but did not receive a reply. One user who said they were a former Priority Air Transport pilot said that they had been angered by 'uninformed' hot takes and that they had been in the 'exact position' as the crashed American Airlines flight 'multiple times.' They described the incident as like a 'semi truck going [the] opposite direction suddenly jumping the median and cutting in front of you,' and pleaded for people to 'let the NTSB [National Transportation Safety Board] paint the full picture.' Other pilots have provided context about why the technology on the two aircraft may have failed to prevent the collision. Commercial aircraft usually have technology called TCAS, which stands for Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System, and is designed to alert pilots and to direct them to avoid other aircraft with loud warnings and instructions in the cockpit. The system may have automatically disabled in the American Airlines aircraft because it was so close to the ground, said Eyewitness News helicopter pilot John Del Giorno. TCAS systems can automatically ignore alerts when the plane is within 1,000 feet of the ground, in order to avoid false alarms with other aircraft taxiing on the ground. Another key technology which can help avoid collisions is ADS-B, which stands for Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast, which sends data between aircraft and air-traffic control systems. Aviation website The Aviationist said the Blackhawk was not transmitting ADS-B data, and was instead transmitting 'Mode S' data, which it said 'is often not 100% accurate, especially at lower altitudes.' Overcrowding at the airport has also previously been highlighted by politicians. Maryland's two U.S. senators issued warnings about overcrowding at Ronald Reagan Airport nine months ago when they were among four senators to vote against a FAA reauthorization bill. Sen. Chris Van Hollen said at the time that he was 'outraged' about the bill, which added 10 new flights to the airport, one of the country's busiest. Sen. Mark Warner from Virginia said he had 'repeatedly' raised the issue of the runways being too busy, speaking at a press conference held Thursday morning at the airport. 'I think we will ask questions, but at the appropriate time. In this period right now, where families are still being notified, we're still trying to figure out what happened. There will be time for those discussions,' he said. Meanwhile, passengers of flights that have previously landed at the airport have posted their experiences of close calls there. Mitch Harper, a lawyer and former city council member in Fort Wayne, Indiana, recounted one story of a last minute go-around. Dominic Cardy, a Canadian politician and pilot, shared a popular thread on X which included details about the congested airspace around Washington D.C. 'My feed is filled with nonsense,' he said, adding that the likely cause was overcrowded airspace and pilot error.
