In a court filing late Wednesday, the federal government accepted liability in the Jan. 29 collision between a military helicopter and a commercial jet over the Potomac River, opening the door for the families of those killed to proceed toward a monetary settlement.
In its filing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the government said the three-person crew of the Army Black Hawk helicopter, whose members were among the 67 who perished in the crash, failed to see and avoid the American Airlines regional jet. It also said air traffic controllers at Reagan National Airport failed to alert the jet of the approaching helicopter, something a Federal Aviation Administration official acknowledged earlier this year.
The crew had been flying in an older Lima model Black Hawk that had known issues with its barometric altimeter, which could give an altitude reading that could vary as much as 70 to 100 feet — a significant problem in the airspace around National, where one of its approach paths directly intersects with the helicopter route.
The night of the crash, the pilot and co-pilot read out two different altitudes as they flew along the path, but they did not resolve the discrepancy. During a heated hearing this summer, members of the National Transportation Safety Board were incensed to find out that the Army had not issued a wider advisory on the barometric altimeter problem, which affected as many as 100 Black Hawks across the service.
In the months since the crash, the Army has inspected and recalibrated the affected altimeters and updated its maintenance procedures to address the problem.
American Airlines declined to comment on the filing. The FAA referred requests for comment to the Justice Department, which declined to comment beyond the filing. PSA Airlines, a regional partner of American also named in the suit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The suit was filed in September by the family of Casey Crafton, who had been returning home to Connecticut from a business trip to Wichita at the time of the crash. It was the first federal lawsuit tied to the midair collision.
“In a very carefully drafted and lengthy legal filing, the United States is admitting the Army and FAA’s responsibility for the needless loss in the crash of an Army helicopter and American Airlines Flight 5342 at Reagan National Airport,” said attorney Robert Clifford, senior partner at Clifford Law Offices, who represents Crafton’s family members.
A Washington Post investigation in September found that airlines have routinely squeezed into the airport a number of flights that federal regulators had been warned were dangerous. They did so, in part, by using the short auxiliary Runway 33, which required landing jets to cross within 15 feet of a helicopter route. That intersection is where the deadly crash occurred.
Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.
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