Government Response Scorecard
This scorecard represents the Flight 5342 families’ ongoing assessment of the urgency and effectiveness of the response to the tragedy by government agencies and elected officials. It is updated every 100 days.
Last update: August 17, 2025
U.S. Army
Rating
Needs Major Improvement
Explanation
The Army finally opened the door to dialogue, but families are still waiting for real action to fix the failures that cost lives.
After six months of silence, the Army has opened the door to dialogue—meeting with families on July 29 and appointing a liaison to maintain engagement. But talk is not the same as action. The failures revealed in the NTSB hearings remain uncorrected, and the Army Inspector General’s (IG) refusal to investigate—even after 28 Senators called for it—leaves serious doubts about whether the Army is taking the steps needed to make its airspace operations safe.
Critical Actions: Next 100 Days
Continue active engagement with the family group.
Move swiftly to address the immediate safety issues identified by the NTSB related to this collision.
Release the results of all internal Army investigations to the public with minimal redactions.
Support the congressional request for an IG investigation.
Announce a plan for operational and safety culture reform.
Publish a comprehensive list of all actions taken since January 29th to fix safety gaps in response to the accident.
FAA
Rating
Needs Major Improvement
Explanation
Administrator Bedford inherits an FAA culture that let dangerous breakdowns persist; the test of his leadership will be how quickly he can turn it around.
Since taking office, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford has engaged directly with families and shown a willingness to listen. The NTSB hearings, however, revealed broken communication, reactive decision-making, and mismanagement at the FAA—systemic issues that now fall squarely to him to fix. Restoring trust will require confronting longstanding cultural challenges and swiftly addressing the appearance of non-cooperation with federal investigators.
Critical Actions: Next 100 Days
Provide complete transparency to the NTSB, including expedited responses to any information requests.
Offer the same level of cooperation to the recently commenced Department of Transportation IG investigation.
Assert stronger responsibility over civil-military airspace management.
Conduct a transparent review of open safety recommendations from the NTSB as soon as possible.
NTSB
Rating
Excellent
Explanation
The NTSB has been the gold standard: fearless, transparent, and unwilling to let the truth be buried.
The NTSB continues to be a model of what a strong response looks like. They have consistently maintained open lines of communication with the family group, conducted three days of in-depth public hearings from July 30 to August 1, and released thousands of pages of investigation materials in a public docket. By surfacing hard truths quickly and clearly, they have made it harder for others to look away.
Critical Actions: Next 100 Days
Continue independent investigative work through the completion of the final report.
Maintain transparency with families.
Proactively identify ongoing risks in the national airspace system that must be addressed urgently.
Rating
Strong Performance
U.S. DOT
Explanation
Secretary Duffy has delivered engagement and funding, but now we need a clear, public roadmap to modernize our skies.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has engaged consistently with families and shown a clear commitment to air traffic safety and modernization. Securing a $12.5 billion “down payment,” rolling out an ATC reform plan, and launching an IG investigation are encouraging steps—but the plan still needs clear short- and long-term milestones, and the IG’s scope should be broadened to address the systemic breakdowns that led to this collision.
Critical Actions: Next 100 Days
Release a more detailed ATC modernization project plan with clear milestones.
Continue progress with the IG investigation.
Complete a transparent review of all open NTSB safety recommendations that have not yet been acted upon.
Rating
Strong Performance
Congress
Explanation
Congress has momentum on aviation safety - now it’s time to deliver a unified, bipartisan reform bill that closes safety gaps and fully modernizes our airspace.
Congress continues to engage actively with families to move quickly toward meaningful change. This has included introducing three separate bills that address key safety gaps, such as ADS-B usage, requesting DOT and Army IG investigations, directly addressing family group priorities in drafts of the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development (T-HUD) Appropriations Bill and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), authorizing $12.5 billion for ATC modernization, and initiating a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into the FAA’s oversight model.
Critical Actions: Next 100 Days
Engage in a bipartisan effort to bring a unified air safety bill to the Senate floor.
Initiate a companion bill in the House.
Continue to press the Department of Defense and U.S. Army to act on the Inspector General investigation requests.