As crash victims’ families start calling lawyers, Trump’s words may be evidence in suits

Families of the victims in Wednesday’s catastrophic airline collision are in the early stages of filing claims against the government, and their case could receive a boost from high profile comments made by President Trump and members of his cabinet admitting fault.

Lawyers from the nation’s top aviation disaster firm say they’ve already been contacted by some families exploring lawsuits after the disaster near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday that killed 67 people. The firm secured settlements for families of victims in the nation’s last major air disaster, the 2009 crash of a Continental Airlines flight in Buffalo that killed 50 people.

Public comments by Trump, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth could make their cases stronger if families of victims in this week’s crash move forward, according to partners with New York-based Kreindler & Kreindler.

“Duffy basically says: We’re not going to run away from it, we’ll own it, and the president has made statements about the Army helicopter pilot who messed up,” said Justin Green a partner at the firm. “It’ll be interesting to see how the government and this administration handles any efforts to resolve this case. It’s within their power to direct claims be paid swiftly.”

The apparent acceptance of responsibility is a departure from past lawsuits, where government agencies are ultra-cautious about liability and assigning blame, Green said. The transcripts and social media posts are already “part of the fabric of the case,” and could be introduced as evidence, he said.

It wouldn’t be new territory for Trump, whose tweets in 2017 were notably used by the 9^th Circuit of Appeals to block the travel ban imposed on majority Muslim countries. Earlier this week, a federal judge cited tweets made by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt when he issued a restraining order against a pause in federal grants and loans.

On Friday, Trump said the Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter that collided with the American Eagle regional passenger jet was to blame for the accident, flying too high. Helicopters flying near Reagan are capped at 200 feet to avoid aircraft.

“It was far above the 200 foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

At the White House Thursday, Hegseth appeared to say the Defense Department would take responsibility for the crash, “no excuses, we’re going to get to the bottom of this… it never should have happened.”

“Tragically, last night, a mistake was made… and there was some sort of an elevation issue we’re investigating at the DOD and Army level,” Hegseth said.

Representatives from the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Lawsuits could target FAA, DOD, American

The aviation disaster firm Kreindler also represents victims in the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse and Boeing 737 MAX lawsuits from the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, which killed 157 people in 2019.

Green said the families “have full legal rights and almost certainly will make recoveries in settlements or at trial” against the Federal Aviation Administration for alleged negligence by air traffic controllers and the Department of Defense for any negligence by pilots of the helicopter.

“The two areas that are most ripe for potential accidents in our aviation safety system are the training and qualifications of the flight crew, which was the focus in Buffalo, and now, air traffic control similarly being undermanned and overcast,” said Dan Rose, another Kreindler partner. “Everybody knew for two decades a ground incursion or midair collision was the most likely soft spot and nothing was done. I expect changes will be made as a result.”

To seek damages from the federal government, litigants must file a notice of claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Then they’d have to wait to see if the government declines the claim, or wait six months to file the official lawsuit. It would then be decided by a judge, rather than a jury.

“It’s premature, but we know each family has very substantial claims, the law looks at the economic damages as in the loss for the survivors and their support, the mortgage can’t get paid and kids can’t go to college,” Green said. “Then more importantly, the non-economic side: The emotional harm, and the suffering of their survivors. Each case is litigated individually.”

Attorneys will also examine options to sue American Airlines and its subsidiary PSA Airlines if they identify any suspected negligence by their pilots. And they’ll probe the onboard traffic alerting equipment to ensure they were functional and up to design standards.

D.C. lawsuits won’t wait for NTSB conclusions

Investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday their preliminary investigation into the crash will take a month and a final report would not be complete for a year or more.

But that won’t stop civil litigation either against American Airlines and its subsidiaries or the federal government.

Attorneys will instead rely on publicly available flight recorder data, media reports and likely hire their own forensic researchers to build a case.

Final NTSB “probable cause” conclusions generally aren’t admissible in court, but the facts the board gathers to come to those conclusions are admissible, said Jason Matzus of Matzus Law in Pittsburgh.

He’s handling a lawsuit stemming from the collapse of Pittsburgh’s Fern Hollow Bridge in 2022, which injured 10. He successfully introduced facts from an NTSB investigation into his lawsuit last year.

Another vital piece of the lawsuits will be calculating damages, for which Matzus said firms will rely on forensic economists.

“Were they a stay-at-home parent or the primary breadwinner?” Matzus said. “Parents will also be able to make claims for their children and estimate their earnings over their life based on the parents’ educational background and earning history.”

But the non-economic damages in the plane crash are more important, Matzus said.

“Claims will be significant. It’s premature, but conservatively speaking these will be multimillion dollar claims each,” he said. “And the life cycle of a case in this type of situation is several years.”

Nick Penzenstadler is a reporter on the USA TODAY investigations team. Contact him at [email protected] or @npenzenstadler, or on Signal at (720) 507-5273.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Aviation lawsuit experts say Trump, Duffy comments will impact claims