WASHINGTON, June 5 (Reuters) - A group of seven

Democratic senators on Thursday introduced sweeping air safety

legislation after a fatal collision between an Army helicopter

and an American Airlines ( AAL ) regional jet in January near

Reagan Washington National Airport killed 67 people.

Lawmakers have questioned why the Federal Aviation

Administration failed to act for years to address close calls

involving helicopters near Reagan.

The legislation would require a review of helicopter and

passenger operations at major airports, mandate new FAA safety

reviews after fatal passenger airline accidents and require the

use of ADS-B, an advanced aircraft-tracking technology.

The FAA did not immediately respond to a request for

comment. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz, a Republican,

has held a series of aviation hearings and called for action by

the FAA and the Army to reduce the risks of collisions. Cruz did

not respond immediately to a request for comment on whether he

supported the Democratic proposal.

Senator Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the

Commerce Committee that oversees the FAA, said the collision

"exposed critical gaps in aviation safety oversight."

She said the legislation "closes dangerous loopholes

that allowed aircraft to operate without essential safety

technology, mandates modern surveillance systems that enhance

pilot awareness of nearby aircraft, and ensures the FAA finally

acts on the data instead of ignoring it."

The Army Black Hawk helicopter did not have ADS-B operating

during a routine training mission when it collided with the

American jet. The FAA in April said it would require ADS-B use

near Reagan National by government helicopters except in cases

such as "active national security missions."

Families of those killed in the American jet's crash said

the bill "marks a meaningful step forward in aviation safety - a

cause that is no longer abstract for our families, but personal

and deeply urgent."

The FAA has suspended Army helicopter flights around the

Pentagon after a May 1 near-miss incident.

There have also been a series of other troubling near-misses

in recent months.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in March that

since 2021, there were more than 15,200 occurrences between

commercial airplanes and helicopters with lateral separation

distance of less than 1 nautical mile and vertical separation of

less than 400 feet, and 85 close-call incidents during that

period at Washington Reagan.

Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau acknowledged in

March that the data was troubling. "Clearly something was

missed," Rocheleau said.