Family of US plane-copter collision victim sues Army, aviation authorities

By Asiye Latife Yilmaz

ISTANBUL (AA) - The family of a victim of last month’s midair collision near Washington, DC has filed claims against both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the US Army, seeking $250 million in damages from each.

On Jan. 29, a passenger jet collided midair with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River near Washington, killing 67 people, including Casey Crafton, 40, whose family filed claims on Tuesday.

Crafton, who was returning home to his wife Rachel and their three children on an American Airlines jet after a business trip, worked as a technical support manager for an aviation consulting firm.

Robert Clifford, the lawyer representing Crafton's family, said: “Everything came together to create this preventable tragedy, we want to get to the bottom of it, and this gets us going."

Clifford said the $250 million figure was set as a maximum for the claim "out of an abundance of caution." He added, according to ABC News: "You can always go down, you cannot go up. And if you look at, you know, wrongful death claims across the country, it's not unheard of to have a number that high.”

The family can file a lawsuit if the FAA and Army do not respond to the claims within six months.