DCA Crash Victims’ Families Slam FAA As Report Identifies 15,000 Near Misses At Airport

Family members of the victims of the January plane and helicopter crash at Reagan National Airport (DCA) voiced frustrations with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) after a preliminary report found that the airport had 1,500 near misses in the past three years.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)’s preliminary report was presented at Thursday’s Senate Subcommittee on Aviation, Space, and Innovation hearing. Victims’ families and their lawyers argued that the NTSB’s findings suggested the deadly crash was preventable.

“I was surprised at the lapses of safety protocols that led to this crash,” Dailey Crafton, brother of Casey Crafton, who died on the American Airlines jet that was crashed into by an Army helicopter, said after the hearing.

Casey Crafton was one of 67 people who died in the collision between American Airlines Flight 5342 and an Army Blackhawk on January 29.

“Specifically, even since the crash, certain safety measures that could have been simply implemented still have not been. Accountability is still not being taken by parties who should be held responsible,” Crafton said in a statement obtained by the Daily Caller.

Members of the aviation subcommittee pressed NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy about her agency’s preliminary report on the incident.

The report found more than 15,000 near misses at Ronald Reagan Washington International Airport (DCA), where the January crash took place, between 2021 and 2024, Homendy testified.

.@NTSB Chair @JenniferHomendy: “Between October 2021 and December 2024 there were over 15,000 close proximity events between commercial aircraft and helicopters at DCA.” pic.twitter.com/PoWWf8mTqk

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 27, 2025

Homendy also testified that that information was readily available to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) prior to the crash. (RELATED: ‘Accident Waiting To Happen’: Feds Ignored DC Death Trap For Years Despite Dozens Of Near Misses With Planes, Choppers)

“The failure to share details about near mid air collisions, or to perform trend analysis on the history of such incidents, or otherwise take action to address the high number of occurrences, is completely unacceptable,” Tracy Brammeier, a partner at Clifford Law Offices, which represents crash victims’ families, said in a statement provided to the Caller.

“All entities who failed to take action must be held accountable to the victims’ families and to the flying public,” Brammeier concluded.

Brammeier’s firm filed pre-case claims against the federal government over the incident for up to $250 million.

“This crash simply should not have happened,” Robert A. Clifford, founder and senior partner of Clifford Law Offices, said in a statement.

“It is a tragedy the suffering that these families have to go through because no one in the proper authoritative positions bothered to do anything about what was happening at DCA until it was too late,” Clifford continued.

Once the mandatory six month waiting period is over, Clifford plans to file complaints against the FAA and the Army. Other families are pursuing similar claims with the help of Regan Zambri Long, a DC-based injury firm. (RELATED: Families Of DCA Crash Victims Pursue Negligence Claim Against FAA, US Army)

“It took the lives of 67 innocent people for the airlines and everyone else to wake up to the statistics that airlines need to put safety first,” Clifford said. He also blasted FAA acting administrator Chris Rocheleau and Brigadier General Matthew Braman, the US Army Aviation Director, for their “less than forthcoming” testimonies Thursday.

Clifford said they “did their best to obfuscate the information provided to the committee. They failed to accept responsibility and accountability for this needless tragedy and the thousands of other adverse experiences that could have led to additional disasters.”

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz pressed Braman on his admission that three quarters of their mission rehearsal readiness flights are operated with their transponders off.

“I find that shocking and deeply unacceptable,” Cruz told him, encouraging him to revisit that policy.

“I can tell you, if the Army chooses not to, I have a high level of confidence that Congress will pass legislation mandating that you revisit the policy,” Cruz told him.

Cruz also claimed that Braman’s office refused to provide access to a memo about the policy following a request from Cruz’s office. When Cruz pressed him to commit to sharing the memo, Braman said he’d commit to “reviewing the information and getting what we can to you.”

“That answer needs to be a yes, that you will provide that memo to the committee,” Cruz said, threatening that if Braman did not provide it within 24 hours, a senior Army official would demand that he do so.

.@SenTedCruz to U.S. Army Brigadier General Matthew Braman, Director, Army Aviation on policies: “I find that shocking and deeply unacceptable…if today another accident occurs over DCA with another helicopter…the Army will have very direct responsibility for that.” pic.twitter.com/0ZxSOkamCQ

— CSPAN (@cspan) March 27, 2025

For families like Crafton’s, they hope that the increased pressure and media attention will help people keep their lost loved ones in mind. “He was such a giving person and he left everyone in his life a better person for having known him,” Dailey Crafton said of his brother.

“He will be missed by so many, being taken too early from all of us. There is a gaping void in all of our lives that can’t be filled.”