The family of one of the 67 people killed earlier this year when an American Airlines plane and a United States Army helicopter collided over Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the government and the airlines involved in the crash.
It accuses them of failing to recognize the warning signs after more than 30 documented near misses in the area.
At least 60 lawsuits from other families are expected to join this first lawsuit that seeks to hold the Federal Aviation Administration, the Army, American Airlines and its regional partner, PSA Airlines, accountable for the deadliest U.S. plane crash since 2001. PSA Airlines operated Flight 5342 that crashed on Jan. 29.
The widow of Casey Crafton from Connecticut, who is raising three young boys without her husband, filed the lawsuit. Her lawyers also represent the majority of the families of people who died in the crash.
“Casey was a devoted father and husband, and we built a beautiful life together,” Rachel Crafton said in a statement about the lawsuit, in which she described her husband as “a loving brother, a supportive son, a committed employee, a selfless friend” and someone who “made everyone around him feel valued and respected.”
Casey Crafton’s brother read his sister-in-law’s statement aloud during a news conference Wednesday where her attorneys also spoke along with others who lost loved ones in the collision. As her husband had worked as an aviation mechanic, Rachel Crafton said he “was betrayed by this system he trusted” when Flight 5342 crashed.
“As his wife, I cannot stand by and allow his life to be lost in vain,” her statement continued. “Today, we are taking legal action because the accountability of American Airlines, PSA Airlines, and the Army and FAA is the only way to ensure this never happens again and no other family has to live with the pain we have to endure each day without Casey.”
Doug Lane, whose wife and child both died on Flight 5342, appeared at Wednesday’s news conference, too.
“I, along with a number of other family members affected by this collision, are here to the deliver the message that the Crafton family are not on this journey alone,” said Lane. He said families of the people killed have “turned grief into action” in the months since, prompting an investigation into the FAA and pushing for another into the Army.
In a statement Wednesday, the FAA said it would continue to work with the National Transportation Safety Board “to ensure no family has to suffer this pain again.”
“Our hearts go out to the families who lost loved ones on that tragic January evening. Since the accident, [Transportation] Secretary [Sean] Duffy and the FAA have acted decisively to make the skies over our nation’s capital safer,” the FAA said.
The airlines and Army both said they are focused on supporting the families who lost loved ones in the crash and ensuring the safety of their flights. The Army declined to discuss the details of the lawsuit, but American and PSA defended their actions and said they will fight any claim that they caused or contributed to this accident.
“Flight 5342 was on a routine approach to DCA (Reagan airport) when the Army helicopter — that was above the published helicopter route altitude — collided with it,” the airlines said in their statement. “American has a strong track record of putting the safety of our customers and team members above everything else.”
Jose Luis Magana / AP 
Determining the cause of the crash
The National Transportation Safety Board has already highlighted a long list of things that likely contributed to the crash, although the final report identifying the cause won’t be ready until next year.
The Black Hawk helicopter was flying well above the 200-foot limit, but even if it had been at the correct altitude, the route it was flying provided a scant 75 feet of separation between helicopters and planes landing on Ronald Reagan International Airport’s secondary runway. The helicopter’s altimeter may have provided faulty readings.
The NTSB has also said the FAA failed to recognize an alarming pattern of near misses at the busy airport in the years before the crash and ignored concerns about helicopter traffic around the airport. Investigators also said that overworked controllers were trying to squeeze as many planes as possible into the landing pattern with minimal separation on a regular basis. If any of those things — or a number of other factors — had been different that night, the collision might have been avoided.
The lawsuit says the airlines failed in their duty to protect the passengers because they were aware of the helicopter traffic around Reagan airport but failed to adequately train pilots to handle it and take other steps to mitigate the risks. Other airline policies, such as allowing pilots to accept an alternative runway that intersects with the helicopter route and heavily scheduling flights in the second half of every hour may have contributed.
“There is clear evidence that there were dozens of near-misses and thousands of reports of congestion between commercial aircraft and military aircraft at Reagan National that were being ignored by the airlines,” said lawyer Bob Clifford, who is representing the families.
The lawsuit says the PSA pilots should have reacted sooner when they received an alert about traffic in the area 19 seconds before the crash instead of waiting until the last second to pull up. The lawsuit says a yellow icon appeared on the pilots’ warning system showing the relative direction and altitude of the Army helicopter.
The PSA pilots would also have heard controllers warn the helicopter about their aircraft although the controller never warned the PSA pilots directly.
“A mission to make sure this doesn’t happen again”
Among the jet’s passengers were several members of the Skating Club of Boston, who were returning from an elite junior skaters’ camp following the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas. A figure skating tribute event in Washington raised $1.2 million for the crash victims’ families.
Others on the flight from Wichita included a group of hunters returning from a guided trip in Kansas; four members of a steamfitters’ union in suburban Maryland; nine students and parents from schools in Fairfax County, Virginia; and two Chinese nationals. There were also four crew members on the plane and three people in the helicopter’s crew who were killed.
Bill and Renee Parente said they are hoping the lawsuit can answer the lingering questions about the crash that killed their 34-year-old son, Anthony Parente, less than six months before he was due to get married.
Bill Parente said his family is mad because this crash didn’t have to happen.
“We are on a mission to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Bill Parente said after the news conference. “We have to live with this for the rest of our lives.”
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