AILSA CHANG, HOST:
It has been one year since the midair collision of a passenger jet and an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C. This week, families of the victims gathered to remember the 67 people killed, and they resolved to keep pushing for aviation safety action, as NPR's Joel Rose reports.
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JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: It was an emotional scene in Washington last night as family and friends gathered a few miles from the site of the collision to remember the victims, but there was also an undercurrent of resilience.
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DOUG LANE: While we were powerless in that moment to help our loved ones, we were not powerless to help each other. So that's what we did, and we've been doing that ever since.
ROSE: Doug Lane's wife, Christine, and teenage son, Spencer, were killed on American Airlines Flight 5342 from Wichita to Washington. Since then, Lane and other family members have channeled their grief into advocacy, and that's gotten attention in the halls of power in D.C., as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy acknowledged during the memorial event.
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SEAN DUFFY: You made a choice to pay it forward, to pay it forward in a way that some other family wouldn't have to go through what your family went through.
ROSE: Many of these families attended a meeting of the National Transportation Safety Board this week, where the NTSB discussed the findings of its yearlong investigation into the collision. The board blamed systemic failures and issued dozens of recommendations intended to prevent future disasters, though NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy acknowledged last night it will take more work to turn those recommendations into reality.
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JENNIFER HOMENDY: Making the systemwide changes we need doesn't come easy. We may have a very long uphill battle before us. And yet I'm hopeful.
ROSE: The NTSB is calling for wider adoption of a tracking technology called ADS-B. Commercial jets already use it to send their position out. The NTSB wants to close loopholes for military aircraft and to expand the use of this technology so that planes can receive signals too. The board says that could've given the pilots more warning and more time to avoid the collision. Doug Lane, who lost his wife and son, said the NTSB has been recommending this since 2008.
LANE: That was the year my son Spencer was born, so he was 16 years old when he died.
ROSE: Lane and other family members have been very involved in crafting a bipartisan bill called the ROTOR Act, which includes many of the NTSB's recommendations. The bill passed the Senate unanimously last month, but it stalled in the House of Representatives because of opposition from powerful committee chairman Sam Graves of Missouri. Graves has called the bill, quote, "emotional legislation," unquote, and raised concerns about its cost. This week, Graves and other committee leaders said they would review the NTSB's findings. Family members of the crash victims say it's time for action.
RACHEL FERES: We do not need more studies. We do not need more reviews. This is so obvious, and I hope that our lawmakers meet the moment.
ROSE: Rachel Feres' cousin Peter Livingston was killed in the collision, along with his wife and two daughters.
FERES: Early on, people told us, you're going to have to show up for a long time. You're going to have to be here for years. And I was really angry when I heard that.
ROSE: Since then, Feres has come to understand the old saying that aviation regulation is written in blood. Feres has learned from family members who've worked for change after other plane crashes, sometimes in the background, often for years.
FERES: So that is a torch that we now pick up, and I think that we are not going to rest until those recommendations are made law.
ROSE: Even if that work is just beginning.
Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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