Warner, Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Review and Strengthen FAA's Safety Management System to Ensure Agency Identifies and Corrects Safety Risks

WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner joined Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) to introduce the FAA SMS Compliance Review Act of 2026 to improve the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) safety oversight and its ability to identify and address aviation safety issues.

"As we approach the one-year mark of the mid-air collision between American Airlines flight 5342 and an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan Airport, it is our responsibility as legislators to make sure that nothing like that tragic crash ever happens again," said Sen. Warner. "This bill creates an independent, expert-driven process to identify system-wide safety improvements so that they can be addressed in order to prevent another tragedy."

"The FAA must ensure that its own safety management system (SMS) is working well if the agency is going to properly oversee the SMSs of those it regulates," said Sen. Cantwell. "Following years of weak oversight which contributed to the DCA mid-air collision, the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 door-plug incident, and the Ethiopian and Indonesian crashes, it's past time to bring in outside safety experts to examine and recommend how FAA can create an agency-wide SMS to be most effective in identifying and correcting safety risks to prevent future incidents."

"From the deadly DCA crash to the spike in near misses and air traffic control equipment outages, there are too many alarm bells ringing that we must strengthen safety in our aviation system," said Sen. Duckworth. "It's the FAA's job to keep the flying public safe, so it only makes sense that the FAA should be held to the highest standard of safety when it comes to its own policies and procedures. Our bill seeks to ensure that the FAA is optimizing effectiveness in its work to strengthen aviation safety and protect passengers and crew."

In its investigation into the January 29, 2025, mid-air collision, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found multiple failures in the FAA's current implementation of its safety management system (SMS). This bill addresses those failures by directing the FAA to establish an independent, expert review panel to make recommendations for a comprehensive, integrated, and effective FAA SMS to better predict, manage, and mitigate safety risks across the agency.

In his response to the Committee following his nomination hearing, FAA Administrator Bedford expressed support for a stronger, and more integrated FAA-wide SMS. Administrator Bedford has also expressed support for a stronger FAA SMS as part of FAA's Flight Plan 2026.

In its preliminary report following the January 29, 2025, mid-air collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a regional commercial jet operating as American Airlines flight 5342 that took the lives of 67 people, the NTSB found the FAA failed to act appropriately in response to safety data pointing to over 15,000 near misses between helicopter and commercial fixed-wing aircraft at DCA during the approximately three-year period leading up to the tragedy.

This has spurred enhanced scrutiny of the efficacy of FAA's own SMS and whether individual SMS at safety-critical FAA offices - including the Air Traffic Organization and the Aviation Safety Organization - are effective in identifying and correcting safety issues. The expert review panel created by this legislation would examine FAA's agency-wide SMS as well as the individual SMS of these key FAA offices. The bill would also direct the panel to evaluate the efficacy of FAA employee voluntary safety reporting systems, a key component of a healthy SMS, and a subject highlighted by air traffic controllers during last summer's NTSB's investigative hearings on the January 29 mid-air collision, who voiced concerns about their ability to flag safety issues.

The families of Flight 5342; Dr. Javier De Luis, Lecturer, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Organization Designation Authorizations (ODA) Expert Panel Member; Dr. Najmedin Meshkati, Professor Civil/Environmental Engineering; Industrial and Systems Engineering; USC Aviation Safety and Security Program University of Southern California, Organization Designation Authorizations (ODA) Expert Panel Member; Bret Oestreich, National President of Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association; the National Air Traffic Controllers Association; Captain Jason Ambrosi, Air Line Pilots Association, International; First Officer Nick Silva, Allied Pilots Association President; and Captain Jody Reven, President, Southwest Airlines Pilots Association have endorsed this legislation.

The bill models the successful expert review panel convened due to Section 103 of the 2020 Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act, which recommended key safety reforms to FAA and Boeing to strengthen safety culture and aircraft certification and production oversight in the aftermath of the 737 MAX crashes.

A section by section of the bill is here and the full bill text is here.

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