DC Plane Crash Lawsuit: Defendants, FTCA, and Consolidation

The DC plane crash lawsuits over the January 29, 2025 midair collision between American Eagle Flight 5342 and a U.S. Army Black Hawk are consolidated in D.C. federal court before Judge Ana C. Reyes, with a jury trial set for April 12, 2027.¹²³ All 67 people aboard the two aircraft died.⁴

The consolidated case is captioned In Re: Mid-Air Collision in Washington, D.C., Jan. 29, 2025, Case No. 1:25-cv-03382. It is proceeding as individual wrongful death actions, not a class action.¹⁵

Who Is Being Sued and On What Theories

The first federal complaint was filed on September 24, 2025 by Rachel Crafton, widow of passenger Casey Crafton, naming American Airlines, PSA Airlines, and the United States. It brought wrongful death and survival claims and alleged the crash was predictable and preventable.⁶⁷ A 133-page master complaint covering the consolidated cases was submitted in early November 2025.⁸

The claims break along three lines.

Against American Airlines and PSA Airlines, plaintiffs allege the carriers failed to train pilots about the helicopter routes near Reagan National, failed to adopt policies to reduce midair collision risk, and “manipulated and abused” the airport’s arrival rate system to squeeze more flights into each hour despite knowing it eroded safety margins. The complaint also stresses that American marketed the PSA-operated flight under the American Eagle brand, so passengers reasonably expected mainline safety standards.⁶⁹

Against the FAA, plaintiffs allege that air traffic controllers failed to separate the two aircraft, failed to issue a safety alert to the jet crew, and that tower managers improperly combined the controller positions responsible for airline traffic and helicopter traffic into a single workstation.⁶

Against the Army, the complaint alleges the Black Hawk crew flew above the 200-foot altitude ceiling for Helicopter Route 4, failed to account for commercial traffic on approach to DCA, and operated with potentially inaccurate barometric altimeters and inconsistent ADS-B transponder signals.⁶

The Government Admits a Breach of Duty

In a 209-page filing on December 17, 2025, the United States conceded partial responsibility. “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 stated.¹⁰ Specifically, the government acknowledged that the Black Hawk pilots’ failure to see and avoid the jet was a proximate cause of the crash and that the tower controller failed to comply with FAA regulations on visual separation.²

The admission has limits. The government denied that the controllers’ actions were a “cause-in-fact” of the deaths, rejected the description of DCA airspace as “an accident waiting to happen,” and disputed the claim that prior near-miss incidents required further analysis that would have prevented the collision.¹⁰ The filing also alleged that pilots on both aircraft, including the American Airlines crew, failed to maintain adequate vigilance, an assertion that pushes some fault back onto a co-defendant.²

Robert Clifford, lead attorney for the Crafton family, characterized the filing as an acknowledgment of “the Army’s responsibility for the needless loss of life” and “the FAA’s failure to follow air traffic control procedure.”²

Why American Airlines Is Still a Defendant

American Airlines and PSA moved to dismiss, arguing that federal law gives the U.S. government exclusive authority over aviation safety and that the carriers had not violated any federal standard.² American separately argued that it was a distinct entity from PSA, with different manuals and training procedures, and therefore bore no liability for a flight PSA operated.³

Judge Reyes rejected those arguments on February 27, 2026. She noted the American Airlines brand runs through every step of the passenger experience, from ticketing and lounges to the logo on the aircraft, the flight attendant uniforms, and the baggage claim. “Any rational human would understand that all steps of the air travel process go through American Airlines,” she wrote, declining to dismiss any claims against either airline.³

How the Cases Were Consolidated

Additional suits followed the Crafton complaint quickly. On October 14, 2025, Judge Reyes held an initial status conference and consolidated a second suit filed by Regan Zambri Long and Williams & Connolly into the Crafton docket. A third case was added two days later, and a fourth was filed on November 4, 2025 by Gateway Litigation and Podhurst Orseck.⁸

On November 12, 2025, Judge Reyes established a Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee. Brian Alexander of Kreindler & Kreindler, a former military pilot, was appointed lead counsel; his firm represents 34 victims’ estates. Clifford Law and Speiser Krause were named co-chairs.¹¹

Reyes set the April 12, 2027 trial date as firm and warned it would not move. She also restricted public commentary about the case, issuing orders that prohibit recording or rebroadcasting court proceedings and warned that violations could bring sanctions. Law360 reported that she later reiterated those restrictions after an attorney for one of the victims made statements to the media, threatening sanctions against that lawyer specifically.¹¹²

Suing the Federal Government Requires an Extra Step

Claims against the United States follow a distinct path under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The FTCA waives sovereign immunity for negligent acts by federal employees acting within the scope of their duties, but it imposes procedural requirements that don’t apply to private defendants.¹³

Before filing suit, a claimant must submit a Standard Form 95 to the relevant agency. The government then has six months to accept, deny, or settle the claim. If it does neither, the claimant can file in federal district court.¹³⁶

One practical consequence: claims against the government under the FTCA are tried by a judge. Claims against the airlines carry a right to a jury.⁵

The Evidence Driving the Plaintiffs’ Case

The NTSB completed its investigation in January 2026, approving 74 findings and issuing 50 safety recommendations. The board placed primary blame on the FAA for routing helicopters close to a runway approach path, for failing to review and update those routes, and for ignoring earlier recommendations to reduce midair collision risk near DCA. It also faulted the air traffic system’s overreliance on pilots visually spotting and avoiding each other, calling that approach flawed at night and in congested airspace.⁴¹⁴

Testimony at the NTSB’s three-day hearing in late July and early August 2025 produced facts that recur throughout the pleadings. A single controller was managing 21 aircraft in the 10 minutes before the collision, and the airline and helicopter controller positions had been combined into one workstation, something that normally would not happen until after 9:30 p.m.¹⁵¹⁶ The FAA confirmed that the tower never issued a safety alert to the PSA crew about the helicopter.¹⁷

The Black Hawk was flying with its ADS-B Out transponder turned off, per a Department of Defense memorandum; an Army officer cited “spoofing vulnerabilities” as the reason. The NTSB’s final report found that an ADS-B In system on the CRJ-700 could have given the flight crew a 59-second warning of the helicopter’s presence.¹⁷⁴

PSA’s assistant director of flight operations confirmed that neither the airline’s manuals nor its DCA-specific guidance contained any information about helicopter routes or military operations near the airport, evidence plaintiffs are using to support their training and policy claims against the carrier.¹⁷ Multiple witnesses described a “make it work” culture among DCA controllers dealing with traffic demand that regularly exceeded the recommended hourly rate of 33 arrivals.¹⁵ Rich Dressler of Metro Aviation testified that the local helicopter community was “very uncomfortable” when the Army’s 12th Aviation Battalion operated in the area.

With the United States conceding a breach of duty, the airlines still in the case, and a firm trial date on the calendar, the fights ahead are over apportionment: how much of the fault belongs to the Army pilots, how much to the controllers, and how much to the carriers whose pilots were never told the helicopter routes existed.

1
CourtListener. Crafton v. American Airlines Inc. Docket
2
NBC News. US Government Admits Errors Deadly Midair Collision DC
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Local News Live. Judge Declines Dismiss American Airlines DCA Crash Lawsuit
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NTSB. NTSB Press Release on Midair Collision Investigation
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ABC News. Federal Lawsuit Filed DC Plane Crash
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Washington Post. Crafton v. American Airlines Complaint
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NPR. American Airlines Army Black Hawk DCA Midair Collision Lawsuit
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Legal News Line. Law Firm Signs Half of American Airlines D.C. Crash Victims
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CNN. Midair Collision Lawsuit
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ABC News. Army FAA Admit Failures Deadly Mid-Air Crash
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Kreindler & Kreindler. PSA Airlines Blackhawk Helicopter Collision Reagan Washington National Airport
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Law360. Feds Admit Role in DC Air Crash, Judge Reiterates Gag Order
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Clifford Law Offices. Clifford Law Files Pre-Case Claims Against Federal Government in Aviation Crash Over the Potomac
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NTSB. DCA25MA108 Investigation Page
15
KWCH. Day 2 Flight 5342 Hearings Examine Air Traffic Controller Training
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Politico. DC Plane Crash Safety Warnings
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CNN. NTSB Final Day Collision Hearing