Widow files first suit naming FAA Army and airlines over Reagan crash

The widow of a Connecticut man killed when a regional jet collided with an Army Black Hawk near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport has filed the first federal lawsuit over the Jan. 29 disaster, naming the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Army, American Airlines and its regional partner PSA Airlines as defendants. The complaint, filed Wednesday in federal court, seeks to hold government agencies and carriers accountable for what the suit calls a wholly avoidable collision that killed dozens near the capital.

The suit was filed by the estate of Casey Crafton and is expected to be joined by other families represented by the same lawyers, who say regulators and operators ignored a pattern of close calls in the airspace around Reagan National. Officials and investigators have said 67 people died in the crash, though court papers and some reports cite 64 passengers aboard Flight 5342, reflecting discrepancies in early counts. The National Transportation Safety Board continues its investigation and has said a final report will not be ready until next year.

According to the complaint and preliminary NTSB findings, several factors likely converged to produce the...