The U.S. government admitted in court documents to failures that led to the January midair collision between a passenger jet and a military helicopter that killed 67 people in all.
The government made the admission in a court filing Wednesday about liability for the Jan. 29 crash between American Eagle Flight 5342, which was on approach to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, and an Army Black Hawk helicopter.
“The United States admits that it owed a duty of care to Plaintiffs, which it breached, thereby proximately causing the tragic accident,” attorneys for the government said in the filing.
The admission of liability was filed in response to lawsuits from families of those killed. The master complaint in the case was filed against American Airlines and PSA Airlines, which operated American Eagle Flight 5342, as well as the U.S. government.
American Airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration declined to comment Wednesday. The Army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Robert A. Clifford, attorney for Rachel Crafton, plaintiff in the master complaint, said Wednesday that the government admitted to errors. Crafton’s husband, Casey, died in the crash.
“The United States admits the Army’s responsibility for the needless loss of life in the crash of an Army helicopter and American Airlines Flight 5342 at Reagan National Airport, as well as the FAA’s failure to follow air traffic control procedure,” Clifford said.
The lawsuit filed against the government and airlines called the deadly midair crash a “wholly avoidable tragedy” and “an accident waiting to happen.”
That suit said it was known or should have been known that the flight was transiting one of the busiest air corridors in the country and that there had been “near miss” incidents around Reagan National before.
The government said in its filing Wednesday that the pilots flying the Black Hawk "failed to maintain vigilance so as to see and avoid other aircraft and their failure was a cause-in-fact and proximate cause of the accident." It said the American Airlines pilots similarly failed to maintain vigilance to avoid the Black Hawk.
The government said an air traffic controller did not comply with an FAA order about visual separation of aircraft.
But it denied other claims, among them that air traffic control failed to properly monitor the path of the helicopter or that it failed to notify the helicopter it was too high or to tell it to descend.
American Airlines and PSA Airlines have filed motions seeking to have the claims dismissed.
Lawyers for American wrote that the Federal Aviation Act “gave the federal government exclusive control in regulating the field of aviation safety” and that the airline is not accused of violating any federal standard.
The parents of Sam Lilley, the first officer on the American Eagle flight, defended their son from any claim that the plane's pilots were responsible.
"We stand by the facts presented at the NTSB’s investigative hearing, which confirmed that AA5342 Captain Jonathan Campos and our son, First Officer, Sam Lilley, complied with all required federal procedures and industry-standard operating practices," Tim and Sheri Lilley said in a statement Wednesday. "They did everything right the night of January 29.”
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the midair crash. In March, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy called on the FAA to severely restrict helicopter traffic near the airport.
The FAA did so, permanently restricting "non-essential helicopter operations" around the airport, known as DCA, and "eliminating helicopter and fixed-wing mixed traffic." The FAA announced those and other steps on March 15.
The Senate on Wednesday approved the Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform Act, or ROTOR, a bill to address problems and strengthen safety in the wake of the accident.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said eliminating the mixing of helicopter and fixed-wing air traffic has made the airport safer, and he said the ROTOR Act would increase communication protocol between aircraft.
"This important legislation is built on that progress and we look forward to working with Congress to make our airspace the envy of the world," Duffy said Wednesday on X.
The bill will next go to the House.
