The U.S. government admitted on Wednesday, December 17, 2025, to their role in the helicopter-plane collision that killed 67 people in the deadliest crash on American soil in more than two decades in January.
The U.S. government said that the Federal Aviation Administration FAA and the army played a role in causing the collision in January between an airliner and a Black Hawk helicopter near the nation’s capital, reports the Guardian.
As reported by the officials, at least 28 bodies were pulled from the Potomac River after the helicopter apparently flew into the path of an American Airlines regional jet while it was landing at Ronald Reagan Airport in northern Virginia, just across the river from Washington, DC.
The official response to the first lawsuit filed by one of the victims’ families said that the government is liable in the crash partly because the air traffic controller violated procedures about when to rely on pilots to maintain visual separation that night.
Additionally, the filing said, the army helicopter pilots’ “failure to maintain vigilance so as to see and avoid” the airline jet makes the government liable.
But the filing suggested that others, including the pilots of the jet and the airlines, may also have played a role.
The lawsuit also blamed American Airlines and its regional partner, PSA Airlines, for roles in the crash, but those airlines have filed motions to dismiss.
Robert Clifford, one of the attorneys for the family of victim Casey Crafton, said the government admitted “the Army’s responsibility for the needless loss of life” and the FAA’s failure to follow air traffic control procedures while “rightfully” acknowledging others – American Airlines and PSA Airlines – also contributed to the deaths.
The families of the victims “remain deeply saddened and anchored in the grief caused by this tragic loss of life,” said Robert.
The government’s lawyers said in the filing that “the United States admits that it owed a duty of care to plaintiffs, which it breached, thereby proximately causing the tragic accident.”
The crash was reported as the deadliest since 2001.
