WASHINGTON — Sen. Jerry Moran was working his phone as he stood at the entrance to Terminal 1 at Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night, awaiting updates on the fate of the passenger plane from Wichita that had crashed in mid-air above the Potomac River.

Moran, the chairman of a Senate panel that focuses on airline safety, was preparing for an investigation. He knew the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Department of Defense would investigate.

But he felt Congress needed to find out what went wrong and prevent it from happening again.

“The facts matter. NTSB will be the original provider of facts,” Moran said. “But I also know that our committee, our subcommittee, will be looking for other experts and other witnesses, others involved in the safety system of our air system, to try to make sure we have all the information necessary and to make sure whatever problems that are brought to our attention are remedied.”

As chairman of the subcommittee, Moran will be able to do just that.

He’s already played a key role in Congressional investigations into faulty aircraft produced by Boeing and in producing legislation to increase flight safety. But now he’ll be investigating closer to home, looking into what went wrong with a flight path he lobbied American Airlines to offer and that he takes every week as he commutes between Washington and Kansas.

Moran and fellow Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall have already been in touch with some of their colleagues to ensure that the Senate will swiftly hold hearings after the NTSB issues its report, which is expected within 30 days.

But the pending investigations haven’t prevented Republican lawmakers from speculating about what, exactly, went wrong to cause the deadliest airplane crash on American soil since 9/11.

Unlike President Donald Trump, who attempted to pin the blame on diversity initiatives in the FAA and the pilots of the Black Hawk helicopter involved in the collision, both Moran and Marshall appeared focused on the administrative issues that may have contributed to the crash.

Marshall pointed out that the plane and helicopter didn’t appear to be able to communicate with each other to avoid the crash – a loophole in a system that requires aircraft to have anti-crash technology to avoid collisions.

The helicopter was exempt from the requirement, Moran said, because it’s a military aircraft that may need to operate with a level of secrecy.

Moran and Marshall also questioned why the military is training aircraft near a commercial airport already criticized for overcrowding and the ease of communication between air traffic control and the helicopter.

“This is unacceptable,’ Marshall said. “I know that Senator Moran on his committee is going to get to the bottom of this.”

Safety concerns

The FAA has already found that air traffic control at Reagan National Airport was understaffed on Wednesday night, which could have contributed to the communications issues that led to the crash, The New York Times reported.

Congress has long been aware of staffing shortages in air traffic control. A November 2023 report by the National Aviation System safety review team found overtime hours were at record highs amid the serious shortages. There were 1,002 fewer certified air traffic controllers in August 2023 than in August 2012, according to the report.

Moran said Congress attempted to address the issue last year when it reauthorized the Federal Aviation Administration – a large bill focused on airline safety. That package included an additional $1 billion to the FAA to help bolster the recruitment and training of air traffic controllers.

“I think that is a significant component in where we’re headed to make sure we have the safest and continue to have the safest air system in the world,” Moran said.

But efforts to increase staff may be complicated by the Trump administration. While Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said he wants to immediately increase staffing at the Federal Aviation Administration, Trump told reporters on Thursday that he wants to impose higher standards on air traffic controllers. Trump claimed that race-based hiring during former President Joe Biden’s administration had lowered standards – without providing any direct evidence that diversity initiatives played a role in Wednesday night’s crash.

“We want brilliant people doing this,” Trump said. “This is a major chess game at the highest level, when you have 60 planes coming in during a short period of time, and they’re all coming in different directions, and you’re dealing with very high level computer work and very complex computers.”

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