US government admits negligence in helicopter-plane collision that killed 67 | US news

The U.S. government acknowledged Wednesday that the Federal Aviation Administration and the military played a role in the January collision between a jetliner and a Black Hawk helicopter near the nation’s capital, killing 67 people in the deadliest accident on U.S. soil in more than two decades.

The official response to the first complaint filed by one of the victims’ families said the government was responsible for the crash in part because the air traffic controller violated procedures regarding when to rely on pilots to maintain visual separation that night. Additionally, the filing says, the “failure of Army helicopter pilots to maintain vigilance to see and avoid” the airline’s plane places government liability.

But the filing suggests others, including the plane’s pilots and the airlines, may also have played a role. The lawsuit also accuses American Airlines and its regional partner, PSA Airlines, of liability for their role in the accident, but those airlines have filed motions to dismiss.

At least 28 bodies were pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River after the helicopter apparently struck the path of the American Airlines regional jet as it landed at Ronald Reagan Airport in northern Virginia, just across the river from Washington, D.C., officials said. The plane was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, and three soldiers were on board the helicopter.

Robert Clifford, one of the attorneys for victim Casey Crafton’s family, said the government recognized “the military’s responsibility for the needless loss of life” and the FAA’s failure to follow air traffic control procedures, while “rightly” acknowledging that others – American Airlines and PSA Airlines – also contributed to the deaths.

The families of the victims “remain deeply saddened and grounded in grief over this tragic loss of life,” he said.

Government lawyers said in their filing that “the United States admits that it owed plaintiffs a duty of care, which it violated, thereby causing this tragic accident.”

An American Airlines spokesperson declined to comment on the suit, but in the airline’s motion to dismiss, the airline said “plaintiffs’ appropriate legal remedy is not against American. It is against the United States government…The court should therefore dismiss American from this lawsuit.” The airline said that since the crash it had focused on supporting the victims’ families.

The National Transportation Safety Board will release its report on the causes of the accident early next year, but investigators have already pointed to a number of contributing factors, including the fact that the helicopter was flying 78 feet (24 m) higher than the 200-foot (61 m) limit on a route that allowed little separation between planes landing on Reagan’s secondary runway and helicopters passing below. Additionally, the NTSB said, the FAA failed to recognize the dangers around the busy airport, even after 85 near misses in the three years before the accident.

Before the collision, the controller asked the helicopter pilots twice if they had the plane in sight, and the pilots responded that they did and requested visual separation clearance so they could use their own eyes to maintain distance. FAA officials acknowledged during NTSB investigative hearings that Reagan controllers had become too reliant on the use of visual separation. This is a practice that the agency has since ended.

Witnesses told the NTSB they seriously questioned whether the helicopter crew could spot the plane while wearing night vision goggles and whether the pilots were looking in the right place.

Investigators said the helicopter pilots may not have realized how high they were because the barometric altimeter they were relying on read 80 to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) lower than the altitude recorded by the flight data recorder.

The victims of the accident included a group of elite young figure skaters, their parents and coaches who had just attended a competition in Wichita, Kansas, and four union steamfitters from the Washington area.