Wichita council hears from Flight 5342 father, votes to urge passage of air safety act

The Wichita City Council passed a resolution Tuesday urging Congress to revisit and pass the ROTOR Act, air‑safety legislation that could prevent midair collisions like the devastating Flight 5342 crash.

The act recently failed by a single vote in the U.S. House. It would have required all aircraft flying around busy airports to have key locator systems.

The chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, Jennifer Homendy, has said the Jan. 29, 2025 collision over the Potomac between a commercial airplane from Wichita and an Army helicopter that killed 67 people, including seven Kansans, was “100 percent preventable.”

The resolution was introduced by council member Joseph Shepard, who lost his friend, Kiah Duggins, in the plane crash.

“I’ve heard the pain of a grieving mother and father and siblings. I grieve the loss of my dear friend every day, and as we witness tonight, heard the pain in the voice of a father and the family members,” Shepard said.

Family members of those lost in the crash were in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting, including the Duggins family, PJ Diaz’s family, and the father of Grace Maxwell.

A separate air safety bill, the ALERT Act, is also making its way through Congress. Maxwell’s father, Dean Maxwell, said it doesn’t go far enough because it doesn’t require the locating systems in aircraft.

“I liken it to building a building, and they wanted to do a comprehensive plan that builds the building. Unfortunately, they’re looking at the foundation and saying, ‘Let’s figure it out later.’ That technology needs to be taken care of now,” Dean Maxwell told the council.

“It does need to be comprehensive. We do need to be safe, but we definitely need to get that technology in place. My daughter would still be alive.”

This story was originally published March 11, 2026 at 5:43 AM.