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America Government Is formally accepted it Role Near the tragic air crash in January WashingtonDC, which took the lives of 67 people.
In their official response to the first lawsuit filed by the victim’s family, officials admitted that both Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Army Contributed to the disaster.
The government’s responsibility is partly due to air traffic controllers’ procedural violations regarding visual separation, as well as the failure of military helicopter pilots to maintain vigilance to see and avoid incoming airline jets. However, the filing also suggests the possible involvement of other parties, including the jet pilots and the airlines themselves. American Airlines And its regional partner, PSA Airlines, which was also named in the lawsuit, has since filed a petition seeking dismissal.
One seen in the incident black eagle The helicopter apparently crossed the path of an American Airlines regional jet as it was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport in northern Virginia. After the crash, 28 bodies were recovered from the icy waters of the Potomac River. The plane was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, while the helicopter was carrying three soldiers, bringing the total number of deaths to 67.
Robert Clifford, one of the lawyers for the family of victim Casey Crafton, said that the government accepted “the military’s responsibility for the unnecessary loss of life” and the FAA’s failure to follow air traffic control procedures, while “correctly” acknowledging that others – American Airlines and PSA Airlines – also contributed to the deaths.
“The families of the victims are deeply saddened and grief-stricken by this tragic loss of life,” he said.
The National Transportation Safety Board will release its report on the cause of the crash early next year, but investigators have already highlighted several factors, including the helicopter flying too high on that route, leaving too little separation between planes landing on Reagan’s secondary runway and helicopters passing below. Additionally, the NTSB said, the FAA failed to recognize hazards around the busy airport despite 85 near misses in the three years before the accident.
Before the collision, the controller asked the helicopter pilots twice if they could see the jet, and the pilots said they did and asked for visual separation approval so they could use their eyes to maintain distance. FAA officials admitted at an NTSB investigative hearing that the Reagan’s controllers had become overly reliant on the use of visual separation. This is a practice that the agency has ended.
Witnesses told the NTSB that they had serious questions about how well the helicopter crew, wearing night vision goggles, could see the plane and whether the pilots were looking in the right place.