Ted Cruz Warns Army About Stonewalling DC Black Hawk Crash

On Tuesday, in a meeting of the Senate Commerce Committee, the chair of that committee, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), had some sharp words for the U.S. Army regarding the January 29th collision of a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter with an American Airlines passenger jet near Reagan National Airport. The crash killed 67 people.

.@SenTedCruz: "If there is another accident, if another Black Hawk helicopter strikes another passenger jet and murders 67 people...rather than act proactively to protect people's lives, the Army chose to protect its bureaucratic ass, those deaths will be on the Army's hands." pic.twitter.com/8jpAVfpOyM
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 2, 2025

Senator Cruz warned the Army:

I want to be explicit to the Army. Every one of us here supports a strong national defense, but the Army does not have at its option ignoring the United States Senate. And if there is another accident, it another Black Hawk helicopter strikes another passenger jet and murders 67 people, because the Army refused to change its policy of turning off its ADS-B out, and rather than act proactively to protect people's lives, the Army chose to protect its bureaucratic a**, those deaths will be on the Army's hands.
None of us want that to happen. The responsible decision for the Army to make is to provide that memo to this committee today. And again, if the Army continues to stonewall, they will face a subpoena from this committee.

The report in question details the Army's decision to forgo the use of the automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast system, or ADS-B, during training operations around Reagan International Airport. The system transmits an aircraft's location, and the Army Black Hawk helicopter involved in the January 29th crash had its ADS-B system turned off.

An army Black Hawk helicopter did not have the system operating during a routine training mission when it collided with an American Airlines regional jet on January 29 near the airport, killing 67 people.
The army last week refused a request from senators for the memo.
Committee chair Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, and Senator Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the panel, had demanded the army turn over the report by Friday.
Cruz said if the army continued to withhold the document, the committee planned to issue a subpoena.
"It begs the question, what doesn't the army want Congress and the American people to know about why it was flying partially blind?" Cruz said. "This is not acceptable."

In 2019, the Federal Aviation Administration exempted the military from using the ADS-B system in certain circumstances. Commercial passenger aircraft are required to have their ADS-B systems active while in flight.

BREAKING: New Details Emerge About Actions of Black Hawk Pilots in Deadly DC Mid-Air Collision

The FAA has since notified the Pentagon that ADS-B use is required near Reagan National Airport except in "active national security missions."

The concern here, of course, is the Army's hesitancy to turn over the memorandum Senator Cruz mentions. It seems, as Senator Cruz points out, that the Army is engaging in some stonewalling; there is something in that memo that they don't want publicized, which is all the more reason to drag it into the daylight. All of us on the political right want a strong national defense, as Senator Cruz also points out, but that in no way means the military branches shouldn't be held accountable when something goes badly wrong - such as what happened on January 29th.

The Army should hand over all of these materials to the Commerce Committee immediately.

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