U.S. admits fault in deadly midair collision over Potomac River

The United States government admitted fault Wednesday night for the midair collision over the Potomac River in January, according to a court filing.

The collision between American Airlines Flight 5342 and a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter killed 67 people total aboard the aircrafts. There were no survivors.

“The United States admits that it owed a duty of care to Plaintiffs, which it breached, thereby proximately causing the tragic accident on January 29, 2025,” the filing said.

Pilots have warned about the complexity of the airspace around Reagan National Airport (DCA) due to close proximity between airliners and helicopters, with city lights also sometimes making it harder to see.

“Prior to, and on the night of the mid-air collision, the Defendants knew, or should have known, that AE5342 was transiting one of the busiest airspaces in the United States, and they knew, or should have known, that the airport approaches, and the airspace in the vicinity of Washington D.C.’s Reagan National Airport (“DCA”), presented certain safety risks, specifically including the possibility of a mid-air collision,” Bradley J. Preamble, senior aviation counsel for the Department of Justice, wrote in the filing.

It goes on to say, “This knowledge includes, but is not limited to, that there have been a substantial number of ‘near miss’ events in and around DCA, which were required to be analyzed to ensure that a mid-air collision did not occur and required Defendants to exercise vigilance when operating and/or controlling aircraft in the vicinity of DCA.”

The 209-page filing also admits how the Army crew on the helicopter negligently failed to establish and maintain proper and safe visual separation with the American Airlines flight, that they negligently failed to identify they were on a collision course and failed to take evasive action, and that they flew off the flight route toward the center of the Potomac River at too high of an altitude.

The filing was an answer to the master complaint in a lawsuit filed by Rachel Crafton, the widow of crash victim Casey Crafton.

The lawsuit, filed in September, alleges the U.S. government, American Airlines and PSA Airlines, which operated Flight 5342, failed to see warning signs after more than 30 near-collisions in the area of DCA. It is the first lawsuit to be filed by the family of a victim of the crash.

Wednesday’s filing opens up the opportunity for victims’ families to seek damages.

“The Defendants’ collective failures caused the mid-air collision that resulted in the senseless and tragic deaths of 67 individuals,” it says.

The U.S. government, however, is not accepting full blame. While it says in the filing the local DCA controller did not comply with an FAA rule regarding informing aircraft on converging courses of traffic and the application of visual separation, the government said “the United States cannot be held liable for their conduct because the alleged negligent acts or omissions were not a cause-in-fact or a proximate cause of the accident.”

The National Transportation Safety Board will likely issue its report on the cause of the crash next year.