WASHINGTON — The U.S. government admitted liability in an air collision in the skies above the nation’s capital that killed 67 people this year, opening the door for the families of victims to seek damages for the crash, according to court documents.

In a 209-page document filed in a federal lawsuit brought by the family of one of the victims, the Justice Department said that the Army pilots flying a Black Hawk helicopter the night of Jan. 29 had failed to maintain “vigilance” and “proper and safe visual separation” with a commercial airliner before it crashed into the jet over the Potomac River.

“The United States admits that the accident could have been avoided” if the Army helicopter had been able to see and avoid the jet, according to an admission of liability document filed with the court Wednesday. The crew should have maintained situational awareness, or a constant sense of what was going on around it, during the flight, the government said in its response. It also said that the crew should have been continually scanning, or looking, for traffic that might have intersected its intended route.

Just before 8:48 p.m. on the night of the accident, the Black Hawk slammed into American Airlines Flight 5342, arriving from Wichita, Kansas, as the jet was attempting to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. It was the worst domestic crash in the United States in nearly a quarter-century.

Everyone aboard both aircraft died from their injuries, including a group returning from a figure-skating championship.

The government in its filing noted that the Army helicopter crew should have “maneuvered to avoid colliding” with the airplane. However, the government said that it made “no evasive maneuvers in the final seconds of flight” that would indicate that the pilots attempted to avoid hitting another aircraft.

The Justice Department was answering a lawsuit, filed Sept. 24, by Rachel Crafton, the widow of a man who died on the airplane.

Crafton sued American Airlines, its subsidiary PSA Airlines, whose pilots were operating the commercial flight, and the United States. She accused the defendants of wrongful death and negligence in operations and training, among other counts.

A spokesperson for the Army, which has been conducting its own investigation of the accident, declined to comment on the government’s admissions. Lawyers representing Crafton did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The difficulties that the Army crew had in seeing and avoiding other aircraft that night were explored in an investigation published by The New York Times in April. Wednesday’s filing emphasized the crew’s failure to carry out that duty.

Because of the actions of the pilots, “the United States is liable to a plaintiff who is legally eligible to recover certain monetary damages” in an “amount yet to be determined and apportioned” among the victims, the filing said.

The Justice Department’s filing acknowledged controller conduct that some aviation experts believed had contributed to the accident. The filing noted that the airport tower controller who was speaking to both aircraft over the radios that night let the helicopter know that the airplane was nearby — but not the reverse. Making both aircraft aware of one another’s presence to avoid a potential collision is standard procedure, according to experienced controllers.

However, the government denied that behavior on the part of the air traffic controller was a cause of the accident that would enable monetary damages for a plaintiff.

Spokespeople for the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Union, which represents controllers in the National Airport tower, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

It added that “the United States admits that it owed a duty of care to plaintiffs, which it breached.”

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the causes of the crash. An official report of the agency’s findings is expected to be released in 2026.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Chris Cameron and Kate Kelly/Al Drago
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