SAN DIEGO (AP) — The San Diego Padres have finalized rookie manager Craig Stammen's coaching staff for the upcoming season, retaining Ruben Niebla as their pitching coach and hiring Steven Souza Jr. as their hitting coach.
The Padres also announced Wednesday that Randy Knorr will be Stammen's bench coach.
Niebla was a finalist in the competition to replace Mike Shildt, who resigned after his second 90-win season ended with a wild-card playoff round exit in October. The top job went to Stammen, a former reliever for the Padres and the Washington Nationals who has never managed at any level, but worked for general manager A.J. Preller for the past two seasons.
Niebla still agreed to return to San Diego, where he has earned significant respect and influence in the clubhouse since joining the coaching staff in 2022. Niebla also received the additional title of associate manager.
The 36-year-old Souza has never been on a major league coaching staff. The outfielder's major league playing career began alongside Stammen with the Nationals in 2014 and ended in 2022. Victor Rodríguez, the Padres' hitting coach last season, left to take the same job with Houston.
Knorr also worked with Stammen in Washington, where he was the bench coach for managers Davey Johnson and Matt Williams a decade ago.
David Macias will return as the Padres' first base coach, while Bob Henley will be the Padres' third base coach after spending the past decade working for the Nationals.
Among the additional returnees from Shildt's staff are bullpen coach Ben Fritz and infield coach Nick Punto.
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FILE - San Diego Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla looks on during a baseball game against the Washington Nationals, July 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government admitted Wednesday that the Federal Aviation Administration and the Army played a role in causing the collision last January between an airliner and a Black Hawk helicopter near the nation's capital, killing 67 people.
The official response to the first lawsuit filed by one of the victims’ families said that the government is liable in the crash partly because the air traffic controller violated procedures about when to rely on pilots to maintain visual separation that night. Plus, the filing said, the Army helicopter pilots' “failure to maintain vigilance so as to see and avoid” the airline jet makes the government liable.
But the filing suggested that others, including the pilots of the jet and the airlines, may have also played a role. The lawsuit also blamed American Airlines and its regional partner, PSA Airlines, for their roles in the crash, but those airlines have filed motions to dismiss.
At least 28 bodies were pulled from the icy waters of the Potomac River after the helicopter apparently flew into the path of the American Airlines regional jet while it was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport in northern Virginia, just across the river from the nation’s capital, officials said. The plane carried 60 passengers and four crew members, and three soldiers were aboard the helicopter.
Robert Clifford, one of the attorneys for the family of victim Casey Crafton said the government admitted “the Army’s responsibility for the needless loss of life” and the FAA’s failure to follow air traffic control procedures while “rightfully” acknowledging others –- American Airlines and PSA Airlines -– also contributed to the deaths.
The families of the victims “remain deeply saddened and anchored in the grief caused by this tragic loss of life,” he said.
The National Transportation Safety Board will release its report on the cause of the crash early next year, but investigators have already highlighted a number of factors that contributed, including the helicopter flying too high on a route that allowed only scant separation between planes landing on Reagan's secondary runway and helicopters passing below. Plus, the NTSB said, the FAA failed to recognize the dangers around the busy airport even after 85 near misses in the three years before the crash.
Before the collision, the controller twice asked the helicopter pilots whether they had the jet in sight, and the pilots said they did and asked for visual separation approval so they could use their own eyes to maintain distance. FAA officials acknowledged at the NTSB’s investigative hearings that the controllers at Reagan had become overly reliant on the use of visual separation. That’s a practice the agency has since ended.
Witnesses told the NTSB that they have serious questions about how well the helicopter crew could spot the plane while wearing night vision goggles and whether the pilots were even looking in the right spot.
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FILE - Attorney Bob Clifford speaks during a news conference regarding the Jan. 29, 2025, mid-air collision between American Eagle flight 5342 and a U.S. Army Black Hawk Helicopter, at the National Press Club, Sept. 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)
FILE - National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy speaks during the NTSB fact-finding hearing on the DCA midair collision accident, at the National Transportation and Safety Board boardroom, July 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., File)
