‘Right thing to do’: Wichita resolution would urge Congress to pass air safety bill
Wichita council member Joseph Shepard plans to propose a resolution to the City Council Tuesday urging Congress to revisit and approve air‑safety legislation that could prevent midair collisions like the devastating Flight 5342 crash. The bill failed recently by a single vote.
“We lost a lot when that plane crash happened,” Shepard said. “Those families felt that same loss all over again when the ROTOR Act failed.”
The ROTOR Act fell short of the two-thirds majority required for passage in the House on Feb. 24 despite being unanimously approved by the Senate in December. The bill, introduced by Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Jerry Moran of Kansas, was Congress’s primary legislative response to the Jan. 29, 2025, collision over the Potomac between a commercial airplane from Wichita and an Army helicopter. The crash killed 67 people, including seven Kansans.
The chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, Jennifer Homendy, later said the collision was “100 percent preventable.”
The ROTOR Act would have required all aircraft flying around busy airports to have key locator systems. It also would have required the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct a safety review of the flight routes at all large and midsize airports and limit where and when military aircraft can turn off advanced location broadcasting technology in proximity to airports.
In a Facebook post the night the bill failed, Shepard announced he plans to propose a resolution to the Wichita City Council calling on Congress to reconsider the bill.
“While we are not in Washington, D.C. making the votes, we do have an opportunity to lend our voices to supporting causes that impact our community, and this is one of them,” Shepard said. “We want to send a message that we’re paying attention and that we are not going to allow the Wichita families who have been impacted by this devastating loss to not get the justice that they deserve through policy.”
The resolution will be on the March 10 City Council agenda. Shepard said it will petition Congress to pass the ROTOR Act and ask representatives who voted ‘no,’ specifically Republican Rep. Tracey Mann, to reconsider. Mann was the only Kansan to oppose the bill.
“We’re not a part of Representative Tracey Mann’s district, but we are loud enough to reach folks,” Shepard said. “I believe that the folks in Representative Tracey Mann’s district, I think their hearts go out to us in Wichita and the tragedy that we are experiencing because, more importantly than it being a loss that impacted Wichita, it impacted Kansans.”
One of those Kansans was Kiah Duggins, a Wichita State graduate, civil rights lawyer and friend of Shepard’s who worked with him when he served as the university’s student body president. Now, her photo hangs on the wall of Shepard’s office, her picture serving as a testament to her memory and spirit of “justice, love, mercy” and humility. It also, Shepard said, reminds him of the importance and implications of each vote cast.
“I think what we miss about policy is understanding the humanity in the impact that it has,” Shepard said “And his (Mann’s) decision to not pass this act, I mean, it has major implications on those families and their healing journey. They will never be the same people, but we can do our part to help the grieving process go a little smoother, to lift the load and make it a little lighter for them.”
Mann, a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said in a statement after the bill failed that he cared “deeply about getting this policy right.” He said he could not support the bill because it was drafted prior to the NTSB’s investigation and recommendations report. He also said that it did not move normally through the committee process “where complex aviation policy is typically vetted and refined in a bipartisan manner.”
Shepard said that City Council members, who voted to bring his resolution up on March 10, signaled at least to some degree that they agree the discussion about aviation safety should continue.
If approved, the resolution would not carry the enforcement of law but would formally state the city’s stance on the bill and urge Congress to pass the legislation.
“The right thing to do is to pass policy to ensure that this tragedy doesn’t happen anywhere ever again in the United States of America, to any family, or any community,” Shepard said. “... We still have an obligation to show up and use whatever power, privilege and presence we have to make a difference for justice.”
