American Airlines sued by family members of passengers killed in collision near DCA

WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — Nine months after an American Airlines flight and a military helicopter collided over the Potomac River, families of the passengers killed on the airplane gathered to announce a lawsuit against the airline.

The announcement came Wednesday at the National Press Club.

The suit also names PSA Airlines and the federal governement as defendants.

Sixty-seven people died on the plane and on the Army helicopter when they crashed into one another near Ronald Reagan Washington National Aiport (DCA) on Jan. 29, 2025.

Bob Clifford of Clifford Law in Chicago is the lawyer representing the family of Casey Crafton. Clifford said the suit he filed on behalf of Crafton’s estate would be the first of many brought by victims’ families.

“Operators of a motor vehicle can’t run through a red light. Operators of commercial aircraft cannot run through yellow lights, and they ran blatantly for years many red lights, by allowing these planes to operate in the navigable space at DCA, knowing that there was massive congestion, that there was massive intersection between military traffic, regarding runways that were unique and requried special training that they failed to provide to their pilots,” contended Clifford.

Following the incident between the airplane and the Blackhawk helicopter, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it was making changes to helicopter routes and zones at DCA.

In July, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators said they found that the chopper was flying higher than it should have been the night of the collision and that its altitude readings were inaccurate.

Initial findings into the crash also uncovered the FAA failed to address years of near-miss complaints near DCA.

“There does seem to be an issue with identifying emerging trends,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told Congress in March.

The FAA said they would use artificial intelligence investigate safety reports to potentially highlight other vulnerable areas.

The investigation also uncovered potential causes, including communications problems with flight-tracking data, audio between the tower and the black hawk helicopter, and night vision goggles the crew likely wore.

Night vision goggles help brighten dark areas, but light pollution in urban environments like DC and near DC, can cause blind spots.

Goggles actually make it worse down there,” said Darrell Feller, a retired U.S. Army National Guard pilot on conditions near DCA. “It’s so bright still, a lot of times we would flip our goggles up going through that area.”

Mid-February DC New Now discovered years of visibility complaints from military pilots wearing night vision goggles, including when aircraft nearly collided.

Our report also found a video posted on the FAA’s YouTube account in 2020 acknowledged a similar problem, saying, “pilots using night vision goggles are unable to see certain lights. The inability to see lights that would be visible with the naked eye, but are invisible when using goggles have created a safety issue for helicopter pilots.”

The video notes that FAA researchers were “evaluating new technologies that can be used with the goggles to enhance visibility.”

Several lawmakers have introduced bills to force more change in light of the crash, including to better share military flight-tracking data in congested commercial air space, as well as limiting the number of flights taking off and landing on DCA runways.