The U.S. Transportation Department’s inspector general has launched an audit of the FAA’s oversight of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (KDCA) in connection with a midair collision over Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people.
In a statement released Friday, the inspector general’s office said the audit was requested by the leadership of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and additional senators and members of Congress.
The investigation will focus on the “FAA’s oversight of the airspace design and management and flight routes around DCA,” as well as the exemption that allows federal government departments and agencies, including the military, to fly aircraft without ADS-B Out technology installed and activated.
The U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter involved in January’s collision was equipped with ADS-B Out, but the system was not turned on.
The inspector general’s office did not provide a timeline for the audit or say when it might be completed.
The probe was announced one week after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded a three-day public hearing on the collision, which featured testimony from Washington air traffic controllers, FAA officials, Army and Air Force officers, and representatives from Sikorsky and PSA Airlines, which was operating the American Airlines flight involved in the crash.
The hearing grew heated at times as NTSB investigators criticized the FAA for failing to turn over relevant information in the weeks and months following the accident. The NTSB also zeroed in on what it called a “disconnect” between overextended air traffic controllers and FAA leadership, who did not seem to recognize serious, systemic problems at the ATC facility overseeing Washington National.
The NTSB’s investigations typically take between one and two years to complete.
