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. (Read more from “DCA Crash Victims’ Families Slam FAA As Report Identifies 15,000 Near Misses At Airport” HERE)
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