President Trump on Thursday said he would speak with members of Congress about legislation that would revamp the nation’s aging aviation safety infrastructure used by air traffic controllers. During the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump highlighted the deadly midair crash last week near Ronald Reagan National Airport between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines that killed 67 people. Trump was critical of the cost of modernizing current aviation safety systems, saying the United States has spent billions of dollars to renovate a system that has been cobbled together when it should instead build a new one. “We should have had better equipment,” Trump said. “We don’t. We have obsolete equipment.” Trump also said that the crash would never have happened if the United States had the right equipment. The NTSB and FAA are leading an investigation into the crash to figure out what happened and have not yet determined an official cause. In a closed briefing with Senators on Thursday, the investigators said they still need to collect evidence from the Black Hawk helicopter. Trump’s comments come a day after Elon Musk announced on the social media platform X that his team at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency would be looking into outdated aviation technology at the FAA after the safety messaging system for pilots experienced a weekend outage. The transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, confirmed on X that he had talked to the DOGE team and said it would upgrade the U.S. aviation system. In a Fox News interview on Monday, Duffy said that Trump has directed him to ensure that safety is paramount at the Transportation Department.<br/>
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Technology that would have allowed air traffic controllers to better track the movement of an Army helicopter before it collided with a passenger jet over the Potomac River last week was turned off at the time of the crash, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, said in an interview on Thursday. Members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, of which Cruz is chairman, received a closed-door briefing with the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board on the midair collision between an American Airlines commercial jet and a Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport that killed 67 people last week. Senators, including Cruz, were updated on the investigation and told that the NTSB needed to collect valuable evidence from the helicopter still resting in the Potomac. The wreckage of the helicopter is expected to be recovered on Thursday. Senators shared few details after the briefing, saying that many more questions needed to be answered before they could make a determination about what went wrong that night. What is known is that the Army was performing a training mission in the Black Hawk in an effort to allow one of the pilots to receive her annual certification. But Mr. Cruz expressed concern that tracking technology for the Black Hawk was turned off during the training mission. When in use, the technology, called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B, broadcasts an aircraft’s position, altitude and speed. It allows air traffic controllers to not rely solely on radar tracking, which can have a delay of a few seconds. It thus provides an extra safety layer to help prevent crashes. Military helicopters can turn off the technology during what are called “continuity of government” missions so that no one can track where government officials are being flown. But Cruz said that was not the case on Jan. 29, the night of the crash.<br/>
Just after 8:43 p.m. on Jan. 29, an air traffic controller at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, posed a question to the pilots of American Airlines Flight 5342: Could they land at a different runway? There was nothing unusual about the request or the pilots’ assent to it. But the decision to switch runways was fateful, bringing the plane closer to the Army Black Hawk helicopter that it would collide with in a crash that killed 67 people. Exactly what happened is still being pieced together. The National Transportation Safety Board is recovering and examining wreckage from the icy Potomac River. The safety agency is expected to publish a preliminary report in the coming weeks, but a more thorough accounting probably won’t arrive for a year or two. But, based on the details that have emerged so far, the pilots in the American regional jet appear to have acted as expected, according to aviation safety experts and half a dozen airline pilots who have flown to and from Reagan airport. There appeared to be little that they could have done differently, these experts told The New York Times. “There wasn’t anything to do. It was a normal day at Reagan,” said Shawn Pruchnicki, a former airline pilot and an assistant professor at the Center for Aviation Studies at Ohio State University, who said that he has piloted aircraft into Reagan National more than a hundred times. Investigators are likely to focus on understanding why the helicopter entered the plane’s flight path and whether the air traffic controller handling both aircraft that night could have or should have done more to keep them apart. The airport is among the country’s most congested and demanding for airline pilots. To fly there, pilots need extra training typically reserved for airports near mountainous terrain. That’s because departing or arriving planes must assiduously avoid the skies above the White House, Capitol, National Mall and vice president’s residence, which are heavily guarded, particularly since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.<br/>
The Federal Aviation Administration plans to announce it is reducing flight arrivals at Washington Reagan National Airport to address safety concerns, after a deadly collision between a helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet killed 67 people, according to an email seen by Reuters. The FAA told airlines late Wednesday that the reduction from a maximum rate of 28 to 26 arrivals per hour would reduce risk but also increase average delays from 40 minutes to 50 minutes. The email said investigators from the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board "have expressed concern for our tower personnel on duty, who have an increased level of stress while also having a front row view of the accident recovery." The email added that reducing the rate from 28 to 26 "will reduce risk and allow a little space for extra coordination." It is unclear if the reduction will force airlines to cancel some flights. The NTSB and FAA are briefing members of the Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday on the investigation. An FAA spokesperson did not immediately comment on how long the restrictions would be in place but noted it is slowing traffic into and out of Reagan due to weather conditions and recovery efforts in the area. In the aftermath of the crash, the FAA has imposed significant restrictions on helicopter flights around Reagan National until at least late February and two of the lesser-used runways remain closed. When police, medical or presidential transportation helicopters must use the airspace, civilian planes are not allowed to be in the same area, according to an FAA advisory. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Wednesday he is reconsidering rules that allowed air traffic control supervisors to reduce staffing before the fatal collision.<br/>
The FAA said on Thursday it has begun reviewing airports with high volumes of mixed helicopter and airplane traffic nearby after a fatal collision last week near Reagan National Airport in Washington. In the aftermath of the crash between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter, the FAA has imposed significant restrictions on helicopter flights around Reagan National until at least late February, and two of the airport's lesser-used runways remain closed. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz said earlier on Thursday that he asked the FAA to review other airports with high helicopter and airplane traffic for safety issues.<br/>
Elon Musk’s involvement in the Trump administration’s airspace reform plan has quickly spurred calls to bar the Tesla and SpaceX leader from those efforts over his alleged conflicts of interest. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday he spoke with Musk — who also leads President Donald Trump’s government-shrinking group DOGE — in the wake of a deadly plane crash above Washington, D.C., last week. “We’re going to remake our airspace, and we’re going to do it quickly,” Duffy said after praising Musk as a “pretty remarkable guy” with “access to the best technological people, the best engineers in the world.” Duffy later Wednesday wrote on Musk’s social media site X that DOGE is “going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system.” Musk replied, “With the support of President @realDonaldTrump, the @DOGE team will aim to make rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system.” But Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the committee that oversees air traffic control, said that Musk should not be allowed anywhere near those reform efforts. “It’s a clear conflict of interest,” Cantwell told reporters Thursday. The senator from Washington state said Musk has been “fined for violations.” She was referencing the Federal Aviation Administration proposing $633,000 in civil penalties against SpaceX last year over the company’s alleged failures to follow licensing rules during two rocket launches in 2023.<br/>
Summoned from his couch to cover last week's plane disaster in Washington, CNN's Pete Muntean rushed in for the first of 24 live reports over the next 48 hours. At one point, he used a model airplane and helicopter to demonstrate. At another, he called President Trump “unhinged” for speculating that diversity in hiring contributed to the crash. Even regular viewers may have wondered: Who is Pete Muntean, anyway? As CNN's aviation correspondent and a pilot who has flown near where the collision that killed 67 people took place, Muntean illustrates the changes in what used to be an important specialty in journalism. Precise numbers are hard to come by. But simply by the content out there, there are fewer reporters concentrating solely on what is a complex and technical beat, both because of how the business has changed and the relative safety of flying. “I realized that planes weren't crashing and I needed a new beat,” said Bill Adair, a former reporter who wrote a book, “The Mystery of Flight 427: Inside a Crash Investigation,” about a 1994 plane crash in western Pennsylvania that killed 132 people. “That's a good thing.” Adair switched to politics, and later created the fact-checking website PolitiFact. Story has more.<br/>
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration said its 65,000-member workforce is exempt from a Trump administration offer to quit jobs in exchange for pay and benefits through September 30. The TSA screened 904m passengers in 2024, which was a record high and a 5% increase over 2023. The White House said on Sunday federal employees involved in public safety positions, such as air traffic controllers and employees at the National Transportation Safety Board are exempt. The Office of Personnel Management said previously said the offer was unavailable to military personnel, U.S. Postal Service workers and positions related to immigration enforcement and national security. President Donald Trump has imposed a hiring freeze on most federal jobs but exempted some positions. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said air traffic controllers and inspectors were exempt from the freeze and the FAA is actively hiring controllers. Air traffic controllers received early retirement offers last week, sparking concerns among airlines about the impact a wave of departures could have on flights.<br/>
Munich airport’s consultancy and management arm is to support the effort to re-open the UK’s Doncaster Sheffield airport. The regional airport closed in 2022, following 17 years of operation, after a business review by owner Peel Group determined its economic prospects were limited. But Doncaster’s city council is working to re-open the airport in spring 2026, and has set up a wholly-owned company, FlyDoncater, to operate the facility. The city’s mayor, Ros Jones, also recently disclosed that an international airport operator was “ready and waiting…to work with us”. Munich Airport International will act as a strategic partner of FlyDoncaster to pursue the re-opening plan, the council states, providing operational and management services. “Our mission is to participate in the development of the airport in Doncaster into a top modern and competitive UK airport,” says MAI managing director Lorenzo Di Loreto. The council has also been supported by a specialist entity identified as FP Airports. Jones says MAI has a “pedigree” in the sector and offers “a wealth of experience, capacity and influence”. The decision allows the council to “press ahead with the necessary airport mobilisation activity”.<br/>
Egypt’s government is conducting a strategic study to explore models for airport privatisation, before commencing a pilot project which is expected to start with Hurghada airport. Speaking during a sectoral UK mission in London on 3 February, Egyptian minister of civil aviation Sameh Ahmed El-Hefny said the government will work with its advisor, IFC, to understand the privatisation options. “IFC will help us during the pilot to reach a good way of tendering this project,” he says, adding that the organisation will give “confidence [to] the market that we’re working in a very transparent way”. The government has earmarked 11 airports for the privatisation study. But El-Hefny says Cairo airport, the capital hub, “is not included in the study”. He says Cairo – which has “reached maximum capacity” and “urgently” needs a fourth terminal to handle another 30m passengers – will be the subject of a further privatisation analysis. “We need to gain some experience from the pilot project, and proceed after that,” he says. El-Hefny says the initial pilot will commence in about five or six months, if a formal launch proceeds in February. The government will “most probably” start with Hurghada airport, he says, adding that it needs “a lot of investment” such as a new terminal. “Everybody’s aware that this is the future,” says El-Hefny. “We are looking to proceed in same direction [as other major airport privatisations]. This process is coming finally to the start-up phase. We are fully ready, we’ve made a lot of preparation, and been visited by most of the big names in this industry for managing airports.”<br/>
A lawyer for relatives of passengers killed by two Boeing 737 Max crashes is urging new US attorney general Pam Bondi to get involved with negotiating a guilty plea by Boeing on charges that it defrauded the Federal Aviation Administration. Attorney Paul Cassell sent a letter on 6 February to Bondi, urging that any new plea agreement recognise the people killed by the crashes in 2018 and 2019. “The families would like to meet with you to discuss any new proposed plea with Boeing,” Cassell writes. “The families are looking for any plea deal the department might offer to Boeing to require Boeing to admit the truth: that its criminal conspiracy directly killed 346 people.” Neither the DOJ nor Boeing responded to requests for comment. Boeing and the DOJ had previously reached an agreement under which Boeing would plead guilty to the fraud charges. Cassell and other attorneys representing victims’ families criticised the DOJ for agreeing to a deal that did not mention victims. In December, however, judge Reed O’Connor with US District Court for the Northern District of Texas threw out the plea agreement, citing concern about “diversity and inclusion”-related provisions. Boeing and the DOJ have since said they are renegotiating a plea proposal. In his letter, Cassell asks Bondi to take a new approach, “in contrast to the deceptive way that the previous administration was handling this case”. The US Senate on 4 February confirmed Bondi as head of the DOJ.<br/>
Boeing said on Thursday it expects Indian and South Asian airlines will add 2,835 commercial aircraft to their fleet over the next 20 years, a four-fold increase over current levels, as a rising middle class and healthy economic growth spur travel. The U.S. planemaker's previous rolling 20-year market forecast, issued last year, was for 2,705 jets. "People will have greater access to air travel, and the region's airlines will require a modern fuel-efficient fleet to meet increased demand over the next two decades," said Ashwin Naidu, Boeing's managing director of commercial marketing for India and South Asia. The planemaker estimated in the closely-watched forecast that carriers in the two regions will take delivery of 2,445 single-aisle aircraft, representing roughly nine out of ten deliveries, while widebody fleet size will quadruple after adding 370 aircraft. It also expects the region's air traffic will grow more than 7% annually through 2043. India is the third-largest domestic aviation market in the world after the U.S. and China and it is also the fastest-growing market, with IndiGo and Air India the top two airlines. Indian airlines have about 1,800 aircraft on order with global planemakers and are scheduled to take delivery of 130 jets this year, according to data from UK-based Cirium Ascend. However, airlines worldwide are struggling to procure jets on time as supply chain issues pressure production at Boeing and Airbus.<br/>
Bombardier CE Eric Martel has highlighted the airframer’s extensive US industrial presence and strong trading relationship as he used the company’s full-year results call to warn against the imposition of tariffs on Canada-built products. President Donald Trump on 1 February said the US would immediately add a 25% tariff to all goods made in Canada or Mexico being imported into the country. However, their introduction was subsequently paused for a month. Nonetheless, the “uncertainty created by the threat of tariffs” has prompted Bombardier to suspend providing financial guidance for 2025, says Martel, briefing investors on 6 February. Bombardier, he says, has some 2,800 suppliers across 47 US states which employ around 10,000 people and there are more “parts and systems” from those suppliers on its aircraft than from any other country. They are not confined to small parts either, he notes, but “major structures and components” – including the Global 7500’s wing – are built by US companies. In addition, Bombardier’s defence business is based in Wichita, Kansas and the company has a string of service centres spread across the country. Martel says the firm has a “reciprocal trade balance” with the USA “where both sides have equally won”. Tariffs “would not benefit anyone in the long term”, he adds.<br/>