Family of father of 3 killed in DC plane crash seeking $250 million in first legal action against FAA, Army
The family of a married father of three killed in the Washington, DC plane crash last month is seeking $250 million in the first legal action filed against the Federal Aviation Administration and the Army in connection to the air disaster.A high-profile aviation law firm filed the claim Tuesday on behalf of the family of Casey Crafton, who was killed along with the 63 other people aboard an American Airlines flight that collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter on Jan.
29.“Casey was an incredible human being.He was a giver, a loving husband, and father,” attorney Bob Clifford with the Chicago-based Clifford Law Offices said in a Tuesday statement.“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,” said Clifford.The lawyer said Crafton’s family “deserves answers about what happened to their loved one.”Tuesday’s filing marked the first legal action against the FAA and the Army over the collision, which also claimed the lives of all three soldiers on the Black Hawk.Crafton, a father of three married to his wife of 16 years, earned his bachelor’s of science in aviation management at Bob Jones University in South Carolina.
He was aboard the American flight on his way home from a business trip in Kansas, where he was working as a technical support manager at Guardian Jet, an aviation consulting firm.Tuesday’s filings are required for pre-case claims against the federal government on top of separate filings for evidence preservation following the crash.Clifford Law Offices cited a report from the National Transportation Safety Board stating that staffing in the control tower at Washington-Reagan National Airport was “not normal” at the time of the crash and that there were communication difficulties between the tower and the American flight.The air control tower at Reagan Airport has been understaffed for years.
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