More than two dozen US lawmakers asked the Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday, October 13, to pause a new AI tool used to help manage flights around Washington, DC, until the agency explains how it was tested and how staff were trained to use it. Why it matters: the tool is already live at three busy airports, and the lawmakers say safety-critical AI should not expand before its testing and accountability are public.
October 13, 2026
What happened?
The request came in a letter to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford. It was led by Representative April McClain Delaney, with Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Don Beyer, Kweisi Mfume, Suhas Subramanyam and Sarah Elfreth among the co-leads, and it calls for a pause rather than a permanent ban.
The system at issue is called SMART, short for Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories. According to the lawmakers and earlier Transportation Department descriptions, it pulls together information such as flight paths and weather to give controllers a clearer, more predictive picture of traffic, congestion and possible disruption.
Where is the tool being used?
SMART was deployed on September 21 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. The lawmakers say a wider rollout was planned in the following months, which is part of why they want answers now, before the pilot becomes the norm.
Their concerns fall into three buckets. First, safety testing: what evaluations were done before launch, how the system behaves in severe weather or outages, and whether any review steps were waived. Second, consultation and training: what input came from controllers, airport authorities and airlines, and what training frontline staff actually received. Third, accountability: how performance will be measured during the initial evaluation period, what standard it must meet before expanding, and who is responsible if a recommendation contributes to an incident.
Why are lawmakers pushing back now?
The letter says some aviation safety workers had only a few days of notice, or none, before deployment, at a time when controllers are already under staffing pressure. It also places the rollout in the shadow of last year’s fatal crash near Reagan National, which the lawmakers cite as a reason this region in particular needs clear answers about testing and oversight.
The FAA and the Transportation Department have previously presented SMART as a modernization effort, aimed at helping controllers anticipate problems rather than only react to them, while noting that broader upgrades to ageing air-traffic systems are still needed.
Why it matters
This is a practical test of a rule that will matter far beyond aviation: AI can be welcomed into safety-critical work, but only if the people who operate it were consulted, trained and able to override it, and if the testing is shown rather than asserted. For travellers, nothing changes today — the letter is a request, not an order, and the FAA has not announced a pause in the reporting available at publication. For anyone building or buying AI for high-stakes settings, the takeaway is the same one we apply at Tested Intelligence: show the evaluation, name who is accountable, and keep a human clearly in charge.
Frequently asked questions
What is the FAA’s SMART tool?
SMART is an AI-enabled air-traffic management tool that combines flight and weather information to help controllers see current traffic and anticipate congestion or disruption at Washington-area airports.
What exactly did lawmakers ask for?
They asked the FAA to pause use of the tool until it answers questions about safety testing, staff consultation and training, performance evaluation and accountability.
Has the FAA paused the tool?
Not in the reporting available when this was published. The lawmakers’ letter is a request to the Transportation Secretary and the FAA Administrator, not a court order.
Sources: Reuters; US House of Representatives (Office of Congresswoman April McClain Delaney); Nextgov/FCW via GovExec