UPDATE 1-US Senate confirms transportation safety board chair to new term

(Adds background on Homendy)

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday confirmed the nomination of Jennifer Homendy by voice vote to serve a new term as chair of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Homendy, who was renominated by President Joe Biden in March, was the on-scene board member for the March 26 Baltimore bridge collapse and the Jan. 5 Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 mid-air emergency prompted by a door panel blowout.

Homendy has served on the board since 2018 and has been chair since August 2021. She has urged action by the Federal Aviation Administration to address close-call aviation incidents.

"We cannot ignore or avoid the warning signs of strain from all these recent events," Homendy told Congress last November, calling for "more technology for runway and cockpit alerting. ... We cannot wait until a fatal accident forces action."

In March,

Homendy criticized

what she termed Boeing's lack of cooperation in the door plug probe, including failing to disclose the names of 25 workers on the door crew at the 737 factory in Renton, Washington. After Homendy's comments, Boeing provided the 25 names. Boeing denied failing to cooperate.

She has urged the FAA to mandate retrofitting all planes with cockpit voice-recorders capturing 25 hours of data from the current two-hour loop.

Homendy has also pushed for new train safety measures after the February 2023 derailment of a train operated by Norfolk Southern in East Palestine, Ohio.

Homendy previously criticized the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for failing to ensure that driver assistance systems like Tesla Autopilot or nascent self-driving vehicles are safe. (Reporting by David Shepardson Editing by Chris Reese and Leslie Adler)