More than two dozen lawmakers ask FAA to pause SMART AI in Washington‑area airspace

More than two dozen members of Congress have formally asked the Federal Aviation Administration to pause use of a new artificial intelligence tool that the agency has begun operating in the Washington‑area, according to aerotime.aero. The lawmakers told the FAA to halt implementation of the system until it provides details about safety testing, how frontline staff will be trained, and who would be held accountable if the technology’s advice contributed to a safety incident. The request to pause covers a tool that the FAA calls Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories, or SMART. Aerotime.aero reported that SMART combines roughly 200 separate data streams, among them weather, flight paths, demand for traffic and controller staffing levels. The FAA began limited operations of the system on September 21, 2026, covering flights at Reagan National (DCA), Washington Dulles (IAD) and Baltimore/Washington International (BWI). By that rollout start date, executives at United, Delta, American and Southwest had publicly welcomed the initiative, the outlet said. The lawmakers’ letter cited gaps they want the FAA to fill before broader deployment. They asked how the agency will evaluate the initial 90‑day trial of SMART, what conditions would have to be satisfied before expanding the system beyond the Washington region, and who would be accountable in the event a SMART recommendation contributed to an operational safety incident. Aerotime.aero quoted McClain Delaney telling the FAA: “I’m calling on the FAA to pause this rollout, show us the safety testing, and explain who is accountable when something goes wrong.”

The article does not provide the full list of signatories, the text of the FAA’s response, nor technical details of the safety tests the lawmakers requested. It records that the lawmakers’ concerns focus on transparency about testing, mechanisms for controller training, the metrics the FAA will use to judge the 90‑day evaluation, and legal or operational accountability for recommendations the system makes. Aerotime.aero’s account was echoed in headline form by other outlets, including The Jerusalem Post, AVweb, UA.NEWS (Channel NewsAsia), and Reuters, which carried reporting that lawmakers asked the FAA to pause use of the AI tool in the D.C. area. Those headlines corroborate that a formal request from lawmakers was sent; aerotime.aero provides the details about the SMART system’s data inputs, the September 21 start of limited operations, the 90‑day evaluation referenced by the lawmakers, and the direct quote from McClain Delaney. The dispute in public coverage at this stage is not over whether the FAA began limited SMART operations — aerotime.aero records that fact — but over whether the FAA has supplied the safety testing, training plans and accountability framework the lawmakers say are necessary before further rollout. The article confines itself to the lawmakers’ requests and the technical description of SMART rather than assessing the system’s safety or the FAA’s internal deliberations.