US admits responsibility for 67 deaths in collision between army helicopter and American Airlines passenger plane

The US government has accepted responsibility for a deadly mid-air collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an incoming helicopter in January. american airlines A regional jet crashes over the Potomac River, killing all 67 people on board.

“The United States has admitted that it breached its duty of care to Plaintiffs, thereby directly causing the tragic accident of January 29, 2025,” the Justice Department said in a court filing Wednesday.

American Eagle Flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, was approaching Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport at an altitude of about 300 feet when a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter carrying three people collided with the airliner.

The Jan. 29 crash was the worst aviation disaster in the United States since 2001 and resulted in restrictions on helicopter flights around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, one of the nation’s busiest airspaces.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the crash investigation, criticized the FAA during a summer hearing on the crash for failing to address safety risks and chronic staffing shortages in the region.

The Justice Department said in a filing that the crew of the U.S. military helicopter failed to evade the U.S. military plane operated by the airline’s subsidiary PSA Airlines.

The Justice Department said in a filing that the crew also did not follow altitude restrictions in the area. The paper acknowledged that Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers failed to keep the planes apart or to issue warnings when the planes approached each other.

The FAA and Army did not immediately comment.

American Airlines did not respond to a request for comment. The company is also named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington by the family of one of the crash victims.