DC plane crash: Victim's family seeks $250 million in first legal action since deadly collision

A high-profile aviation law firm on Tuesday filed the first legal actions related to the deadly Jan. 29 Washington, D.C. plane crash, seeking $250 million on behalf of a widow of 16 years and her three children of a passenger who perished in the midair collision.

The recent collision of American Airlines Flight 5342 with an Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk over the Potomac River killed every person aboard both aircraft, a total of 67 people, including 40-year-old Casey Crafton of Salem, Connecticut.

"Casey was an incredible human being," attorney Bob Clifford with the Chicago-based Clifford Law Offices said in a Tuesday statement. "He was a giver, a loving husband, and father. He enjoyed coaching his boys on their youth soccer and Little League baseball teams. They will be grieving him for the rest of their lives that will never be the same. The family deserves answers about what happened to their loved one."

Crafton earned his bachelor's of science in aviation management from Bob Jones University in South Carolina and was returning from Wichita, Kansas, on a business trip while working as a technical support manager at Guardian Jet, an aviation consulting firm, when the plane to D.C. crashed.

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Casey Crafton leaves behind his wife of 16 years and their three sons. (Clifford Law Offices)

Tuesday's filings are required for pre-case claims against the federal government, as well as separate filings for preservation of evidence following the deadly crash. The $250 million claims have been filed against the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. Army, which operated the Black Hawk.

Clifford Law Offices is citing a report from the National Transportation Safety Board saying staffing in the control tower at Washington-Reagan National Airport (DCA) at the time of the collision was "not normal," and there were communication issues between the tower and Flight 5342.

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The FAA told Fox News Digital it does not comment on pending litigation. Fox News Digital also reached out to the Army for comment.

Jan. 29 D.C. plane-helicopter collision map.

Staffing at the air control tower at DCA was "not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic," according to an internal preliminary FAA report reviewed by The New York Times.

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The controller who was handling helicopters on the evening of Jan. 29 was also instructing planes that were landing and departing from the airport runways, the Times reported. Those assignments are typically assigned to two controllers.

Crew retrieve wreckage of American Airlines Flight 5342 in the Potomac River, Washington, D.C., Jan. 30, 2025. The plane was involved in a fatal collision with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter the previous night. (Leigh Green for Fox News Digital)

The air control tower at Reagan Airport has been understaffed for years with 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023. The FAA and controllers' union, however, called for 30 controllers in its staffing targets.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth previously told "Fox & Friends" on Jan. 30 that officials "will get to the bottom of what happened here."

"It's completely unacceptable in our nation's capital or anywhere. The military trains, and it trains robustly. And we're not going to stop training, even though there's a pause on this unit, on this exercise, which is an important one. And we should have that pause until we get to the bottom of this," Hegseth said. "…We have to train safely. Something like this can never happen. And it's completely unacceptable."

Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business. Email tips to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or on Twitter at @audpants.