The first lawsuit filed in the midair collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Eagle regional jet last January blames the Army, the FAA, and the airline for the catastrophe. The suit, brought by the family of one of 67 victims of the catastrophe, says the Army and FAA failed to prevent the accident and the airline willingly put its customers in what it knew was a dangerous environment. Attorney Bob Clifford told a news conference the crash “was predictable, it was preventable and caused the needless loss of 67 lives on that fateful evening.”
The NTSB hasn’t yet issued its final report on the accident but has held public sessions to present facts and hear testimony from representatives of the entities involved. The helicopter was on a published route across the airport but may have been higher than authorized when it crossed directly in front of the regional jet. There were also communications issues revealed. The public sessions resulted in the removal of helicopter routes used by the Army to shuttle VIPs through the airspace over the airport and revealed concerns about staffing and equipment issues at the air traffic control facilities there. Other families are expected to join the lawsuit and the litigation could last years.
Would be interesting to peruse the Letter of Agreement (LOA) betwixt KDCA and the US Army that, long ago, established the helicopter corridors and required procedures. Clearly the corridors were published. But how familiar were ATC personnel and Army pilots with the LOA required procedures? No airline pilots would’ve been required to know about and accept this non-standard risk. Normalization of a procedure with more risk than realized by most?
The Army procedure, if I’m not thinking wrong, provided absolutely no actual separation between the helicopters and DCA traffic, other than give an opportunity to establish visual separation. The circling approach has no altitude restriction to separate them from a transitioning helicopter. It apparently only assumed that a jet circling would not intentionally fly so low, so close to the far side river bank. But no guarantee like real separation. As I mentioned, the only thing that could possibly work was establishing visual separation between the two before it got ugly, which in this case the controller thought he had done.
Suing the airline is purely a money grab. They did nothing wrong.
I am not usually one to applaud the heavy duty suing following accidents, however on this one I hope the families of the victims sue everybody and their grandmothers (even remotely connected) out of their knickers.
We write the year 2025 for another few months. Midair collisions are incomprehensible and inexcusable. This catastrophy was preventable and it was nothing but systemic failure and negligence which allowed it to happen.
Unfortunately, stuff has a tendency to stay the same unless someone, somewhere pays a lot of money. Lives, safety, performance – all naked and meaningless lipservice and empty phrases. Money is what matters. Take all you can.