US government admits negligence in helicopter-plane collision that killed 67

Official response to lawsuit filed by victims' relatives admits FAA and army failures played role in Washington DC crash

The US government admitted Wednesday that the Federal Aviation Administration and the army played a role in causing the collision in January between an airliner and a Black Hawk helicopter near the nation's capital, killing 67 people in the deadliest crash on American soil in more than two decades.

The official response to the first lawsuit filed by one of the victims' families said that the government is liable in the crash partly because the air traffic controller violated procedures about when to rely on pilots to maintain visual separation that night. Plus, the filing said, the army helicopter pilots' failure to maintain vigilance so as to see and avoid" the airline jet makes the government liable.