Law360 (January 29, 2026, 9:12 PM EST) -- Investigators' determination that the Federal Aviation Administration ignored repeated warnings about near-misses and risky helicopter traffic around the nation's capital is expected to spur regulatory reforms and potentially heighten the government's legal exposure in civil litigation stemming from the deadly midair collision in Washington, D.C., a year ago.
The National Transportation Safety Board this week delivered a scathing rebuke of the nation's air safety regulator in its final investigative findings into the Jan. 29, 2025, collision between a U.S. Army helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport that left 67 people dead.
The NTSB pointed to "systemic failures" by both the FAA and the U.S. Army as contributing to the catastrophe, but torched the FAA for charting out risky helicopter routes and mismanaging air traffic control around the notoriously complex and highly congested airport, also known as DCA.
The findings are expected to help shape pending aviation safety reform legislation, and have significant implications for consolidated litigation from victims' families seeking accountability for what the NTSB described as the deadliest aviation accident in the U.S. in more than two decades, experts say.
Probable Cause
In its probable cause finding, the NTSB blasted the FAA for allowing helicopters to fly a route along the Potomac River known as Route 4 — between Hains Point and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge — that meant helicopters would come in close proximity to the approach path of jets landing at one of DCA's runways. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy stated that "at best" there could be just 75 feet of vertical separation between a helicopter and a civilian aircraft along that route. The FAA says it has
since permanently restricted nonessential helicopter and powered-lift aircraft flights around DCA.
Following the release of the NTSB's findings Tuesday, the FAA pledged to carefully consider the board's safety recommendations, and said it "values and appreciates the NTSB's expertise and input. We have worked side-by-side with the NTSB throughout this accident investigation and acted
immediately to implement urgent safety recommendations it issued in March 2025."
Additionally, air traffic controllers overrelied on pilots to maintain visual separation — using the "see-and-avoid" approach — meaning it was left up to pilots to visually scan around them and avoid collisions with other aircraft. That longstanding practice "introduced unacceptable risk" into the DCA
airspace, the NTSB said.
Meanwhile, the Army Black Hawk helicopter's crew failed to maintain visual separation or take note of different readings from barometric or radar altimeters regarding their actual altitude, according to the NTSB.
In a Thursday statement, an Army spokesperson said, "We thank Chairwoman Homendy and the NTSB investigators for their work in uncovering facts that will assist our efforts to ensure the safety of both the public and our military personnel. The Army remains committed to collaborating closely with the NTSB, FAA, and other federal partners to support lasting improvements in aviation safety that honor those who were lost."
Families' Litigation
The findings also carry significant implications for victims' families pressing ahead with consolidated litigation in D.C. federal court against the FAA, the Army, American Airlines and its subsidiary PSA Airlines.
"This was a preventable tragedy; the official records are revealing some hard truths that will be addressed in the litigation," Timothy A. Loranger, an attorney and senior partner at Wisner Baum, said in a Tuesday statement following the NTSB's findings. "The case is also about forcing hard fixes.
Setting stricter DCA airspace rules, modernizing deconfliction between military and civilian operations, and ensuring adequate safety margins to ensure a collision like this does not happen again."
Notably, in a 209-page court filing Dec. 17, the federal government admitted partial liability for breaching its duty of care and proximately causing the tragic accident.
"The government's December admission of liability is significant and somewhat unusual this early in litigation … This filing ostensibly admits some fault and eliminates the need to prove the government's fault at trial," Georgia-based personal injury attorney Matthew Stoddard of The Stoddard Firm said. "At the same, however, the Justice Department claims that the air traffic controllers' conduct did not cause the collision, that the United States is entitled to sovereign immunity on some claims, that potentially all claims are barred by immunity principals, and that some fault lies with parties other than the United States government."
Stoddard, who is not involved in the litigation, noted that there are limits to lawsuits brought against the government, but "the government's early admission suggests they recognize the overwhelming strength of the evidence and may prefer negotiated resolution. However, American Airlines and PSA have taken the opposite approach, filing motions to dismiss and attempting to shift all blame to the government. This creates complex litigation dynamics."
While the NTSB's probable cause finding and other determinations aren't admissible in court, they
can still have an impact on the litigation proceedings, "as they will provide a roadmap for both parties, including witnesses, accident causes, and evidence, [and] lawyers will have to do the legwork themselves of finding the relevant witnesses or figuring out how to use evidence based on the
report's conclusions," according to Michael P. Mezzacappa, a partner and general counsel at insurance defense firm Coffey Modica LLP who is not involved in the litigation.
The NTSB's factual findings, such as the communications records, flight data, witness statements and technical analysis, would still "be a big help to all parties and will inform the evidence at trial," according to Stoddard.
ROTOR Act
On the heels of the NTSB's findings, lawmakers and others are pushing for federal legislation that would mandate aircraft-tracking technology in all aircraft, alongside fresh audits of FAA and military procedures.
The U.S. Senate in December passed the bipartisan Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform Act to remedy what lawmakers described as "glaring failures in oversight and coordination" and miscommunication between the FAA and U.S. Department of Defense related to flights around congested airspace. The ROTOR Act is pending in the House.
The ROTOR Act, first floated in July 2025 by Sen. Ted Cruz — chair of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee — and other Republicans, also incorporated key provisions of the Democrats' version of an aviation safety bill, called the Safe Operation of Shared Airspace Act,
introduced by the committee's ranking member, Sen. Maria Cantwell, in June 2025.
It seeks to establish new requirements for all aircraft and helicopters to use Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast, or ADS-B, technology. ADS-B technology uses satellites to pinpoint an aircraft's location, altitude and velocity more precisely than traditional radar.
The ROTOR Act would require all aircraft in controlled airspace to be equipped with ADS-B In, which allows aircraft to receive traffic and location signals from other nearby aircraft and ground technology. Additionally, it would close what lawmakers described as a regulatory loophole that had
allowed the U.S. Department of Defense to fly aircraft domestically without transmitting ADS-B Out, which sends out an aircraft's position, altitude and velocity to other aircraft and air traffic controllers.
In a joint statement Thursday, AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department president Greg Regan and secretary-treasurer Shari Semelsberger said, "As America's largest transportation labor federation, protecting and improving aviation safety is core to our mission. We have witnessed our aviation union
siblings, federal safety regulators, and lawmakers advocate for critical aviation safety protections in the aftermath of the tragedy.
"A year later, we continue to press for permanent changes to better protect the flying public and the aviation workers who serve them. There is broad bipartisan support for the ROTOR Act, which passed the Senate last month," Regan and Semelsberger said. "Yet the bill is still sitting on the speaker's desk when it could immediately be brought to the House floor for consideration. We urge House leaders to call forward the ROTOR Act and pass this essential legislation. On this anniversary, the path to honor through action is clear."
