Rachel Feres lost four members of her family in the deadly plane crash near Washington, D.C., earlier this year. She said that in the aftermath of the crash, flying will never be the same for her, and the government shutdown gave her pause when she came to Capitol Hill this week to advocate for safety reforms.
“I trust that everyone who is going to work is doing their very best to keep us safe, but this is just not a functional way to govern,” she told CBS News. “We deserve better than this. We deserve that our essential systems, our transportation systems, stay open and that the folks who are responsible for keeping those safe are paid on time and that that doesn’t become a football.”
Amid efforts in Congress to reform the nation’s aviation system, Feres and other victims’ family members have been meeting with lawmakers and Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board. Feres’ cousin Peter Livingston, his wife Donna and daughters Alydia and Everly died when an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Eagle flight over the Potomac River in January.
“Our message has been that aviation safety reform matters,” Feres said. “It matters to the American people. This is a nonpartisan issue. This is an American issue, and we all deserve to know that when we or our loved ones get on a plane, we get off again on the other side.”
Feres and other victims’ family members met with Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and the panel’s top Democrat, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state.
“I have a lot of confidence in the members on both sides of the aisle who are working hard to ensure that this stays a top priority, but I think anytime, obviously, the government is shut down, we know that infrastructure projects are delayed and we know that the members of the government who are on the job, who are TSA agents and air traffic controllers, may not be getting paid, and that’s a concern for all of us.”
The NTSB’s investigation into January’s crash is ongoing.
The Black Hawk helicopter was flying without a piece of equipment turned on that allows the aircraft to be tracked. The military has a waiver that essentially exempts it from having to use the equipment.
In July, Cruz introduced legislation that would require all aircraft to use the equipment, known as Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast, or ADS-B.
A spokesperson for Cruz said in a statement to CBS News that he’s been working with the victims’ families on the bill since January.
“The Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Reform Act represents an important step forward in aviation safety reform by requiring that all aircraft, military and civilian, use both ADS-B Out and ADS-B In and seeks to hold the Army accountable for failures that may have contributed to the crash,” the spokesperson said. “He is committed to ensuring another accident does not happen again.”
