WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department said late on Wednesday that government employees were negligent in a fatal collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet on January 29 that killed 67 people near Reagan Washington National Airport, laying out a widespread series of government failures.
The U.S. government said it is among defendants liable for the damages from the crash, saying the Army flight crew failed to adequately operate the helicopter and Federal Aviation Administration 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.”
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Chris Reese)
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