Army helicopter collided with a passenger jet last week in Washington had disabled monitoring technology at the time of crash, the US senator said Ted Cruise to the New York Times.

Technology allows air traffic controllers to better monitor the movement of an aircraft.

Republican Senator Cruz is a member of the Commerce, Science and Transport Committee, who received an update in closed doors of the US Federal Aviation Service and the National Transport Security Council.

Cruise expressed his concern that Tracking Technology for Black Hawk turned off during the training missionthe New York Times reported on Thursday night.

When used, technology, called Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B, transmits the position, height and speed of an aircraft, the New York Times reported.

It allows air traffic auditors not to rely solely on radar monitoring, which may be delayed by a few seconds and therefore provides an additional level of security, according to the newspaper.

The deadly collision over the Potomac River in Washington between the helicopter and a American Airlines regional aircraft killed 67 people last week. It has been the most deadly US air disaster for more than 20 years.