The U.S. government admitted on Dec. 17, 2025, that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and U.S. Army were responsible in the January collision that killed 67 people. The accident occurred between a Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet near Washington, D.C., becoming the deadliest American plane crash in over two decades. The admission, made in a 209-page filing by the Department of Justice, came in response to a lawsuit filed by one of the victims’ families. 

“The United States admits that it owed a duty of care to plaintiffs, which it breached, thereby proximately causing the tragic accident,” the filing said. “[The] Defendants’ collective failures caused the mid-air collision that resulted in the senseless and tragic deaths of 67 individuals.”

The government said it is liable due to the roles of airport staff and army flight crewmembers in the crash. The filing said that air traffic controllers “failed in their two most important priorities, namely to separate aircraft in airspace and issue safety alerts when aircraft are in an unsafe proximity to one another.”

The document also said that the Army helicopter pilots’ “failure to maintain vigilance so as to see and avoid other aircraft … was a cause-in-fact and proximate cause of the accident.”

However, the filing also points responsibility to others, including the pilots of the jet, claiming that they failed to keep watch. Despite this, families of the flight crew have rejected suggestions of pilot error. Tim and Sherri Lilley, parents of pilot Sam Lilley, said that he “complied with all required federal procedures and industry-standard operating practices.” 

The document suggests that the airlines, including American Airlines and PSA Airlines, played a role in the crash. The airlines have filed motions to dismiss, arguing that the Federal Aviation Act “gave the federal government exclusive control in regulating the field of aviation safety.”

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is continuing to investigate the crash. Investigators have already noted multiple factors that contributed. This includes the helicopter flying 78 feet higher than the 200-foot limit, as well as the FAA’s failure to recognize the dangers around Reagan National. In the three years before the accident, 85 near misses had been recorded. 

In March, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy urged the FAA to impose restrictions on helicopter traffic near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which was the destination of the flight. Following this, the FAA announced permanent limits on “non-essential helicopter operations” and eliminated mixed helicopter and fixed-wing traffic. 

Furthermore, at the same time of the filing, the Senate approved the Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform Act, which aims to strengthen supervision of military helicopter operations in civilian airspace. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) also introduced legislation to require aircraft operators to use both forms of Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast, a technology used to broadcast aircraft location data to other planes and air traffic controllers.  

These restrictions and regulations are needed in order to prevent future incidents. Government transparency should also increase for compliance and better communication in the ongoing investigation, and to ensure that a similar accident will never occur again.