Ted Cruz: “In January of this year, tragedy struck just a few miles from here when an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with…”

“In January of this year, tragedy struck just a few miles from here when an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with American Airlines Flight 5342 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Sixty-seven souls were tragically lost in an instant. After the crash, it quickly became evident that there were commonsense changes that would immediately enhance aviation safety. The Army helicopter, flying along the Potomac River, had deliberately chosen not to broadcast its location to other aircraft or to air traffic control using the common aviation technology called automatic dependent surveillance broadcast, or ADS-B. Had the Black Hawk been using ADS-B, like every other aircraft is required to do, tragedy could well have been averted. We have since learned from the National Transportation Safety Board that the military was routinely flying by its own set of rules, particularly around Reagan National, which meant that there had been numerous near misses before this deadly crash. In fact, just last Friday, an Air Force tanker was flying without using ADS-B and nearly collided into a JetBlue plane headed to New York despite the justifiable public outrage over what happened at DCA. Clearly, the Pentagon's behavior needed to change.”