Family Of DC Plane Crash Victim Sues FAA, Army, American Airlines

WASHINGTON, DC — The family of one of the 67 people killed when a Black Hawk Army helicopter collided with an American Airlines flight near Reagan National Airport earlier this year has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government and the airlines involved, accusing them of not heeding warnings after more than 30 documented near misses in the area.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court on behalf of the widow and three children of Casey Crafton of Connecticut, who was killed in the mid-air collision. The suit was announced on Wednesday afternoon at a news conference held in Washington, D.C.

"Nearly 8 months ago, our lives were shattered in a moment, and our grief has been unimaginable," Crafton's brother, David Crafton, said as he read from a prepared statement. "Casey was betrayed by the system he trusted. We are taking legal action because this is the only way to ensure this never happens again."

Other families are expected to join this first lawsuit that seeks to hold the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Army, American Airlines and its regional partner, PSA Airlines, accountable for the deadliest U.S. plane crash since 2001. PSA Airlines operated Flight 5342 that crashed on Jan. 29.

The lawsuit says the airlines and government agencies “utterly failed in their responsibilities to the traveling public.”

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Crafton was returning home to Connecticut on the American Airlines flight when the plane collided with an Army helicopter on a training flight. The crash killed all 64 people aboard the American Airlines flight and the three in the Army Black Hawk helicopter.

The plane was about to land at Reagan Airport when the crash occurred. The collision remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The NTSB has already highlighted a long list of things that likely contributed to the crash, although the final report identifying the cause won't be ready until next year.

The Black Hawk helicopter was flying well above the 200-foot limit, but even if it had been at the correct altitude, the route it was flying provided just 75 feet of separation between helicopters and planes landing on Reagan Airport's secondary runway. The flight data recorder showed the helicopter was actually flying 80 feet to 100 feet higher than the altimeter showed before the two aircraft collided.

The NTSB has also said the FAA failed to recognize an alarming pattern of near misses at the busy airport in the years before the crash and ignored concerns about helicopter traffic around the airport.

Investigators also said that overworked controllers tried to squeeze as many planes as possible into the landing pattern with minimal separation. If any of those things — or several other factors — had been different that night, the collision might have been avoided.

“There is clear evidence that there were dozens of near-misses and thousands of reports of congestion between commercial aircraft and military aircraft at Reagan National that were being ignored by the airlines,” said lawyer Bob Clifford, who is representing the families of the victims.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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