The U.S. Army found many systemic breakdowns that led to last year’s midair collision between an American Airlines jet and a Black Hawk helicopter near Washington, D.C., and recommended numerous steps the military should take to prevent future tragedies.
The military has not publicly released its report on the deadliest plane crash on U.S. soil in over two decades, but eventually shared it late last week with many of the families of the 67 people who died.
For months, the families have been pressuring the Army in daily social media posts to release the report, which was completed in May. The Associated Press obtained a copy on Thursday. The Army did not immediately comment.
Former Army Black Hawk pilot Tim Lilley, whose son Sam Lilley was the first officer on the American Airlines jet, said he still wants more details from the military. Some information in the report was redacted and the military assigned responsibility for its shortcomings broadly across the Army.
“The Army owes the families and the American public a full accounting of how these risks were allowed to persist, who was responsible for the decisions that allowed them to persist and what will be done to make sure this never happens again,” said Lilley, who is a commercial jet captain today.
While the report largely reinforces the National Transportation Safety Board's conclusions, the civilian investigation was broader and NTSB members focused on years of warning signs missed by the Federal Aviation Administration. The Army report highlighted how the air traffic controller in the tower at Reagan National Airport could have prevented the crash, but also acknowledged the military's own failings.
The report recommended that the Army look beyond Washington, D.C., to study the practices in every major city where its helicopters operate to ensure similar risks aren't present. An Army official said the review of helicopter flights in other cities, including Los Angeles and the Seattle-Tacoma region, is ongoing. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the situation.
The lieutenant general who authored the report said “breakdowns across all layers of conflict management caused this accident” but “the most salient contributing factor was the two broken radio transmissions” that contributed to the helicopter crew not identifying Flight 5342 as it was circling to land on Reagan National Airport's alternate runway. The military pilots were wearing night-vision goggles that limited their field of vision and made it difficult to spot the plane amid the lights of the city.
The NTSB said in a letter to the Army last week that the agency is pleased with the progress being made on seven of the eight recommendations to the Army. That contrasts with the FAA which the NTSB has faulted for failing to implement roughly one-third of the recommendations to that safety regulator.
The Army report said the controller should have provided the helicopter crew with more details about exactly where the plane was to help the pilots spot it, and the controller should have warned the plane about the helicopter headed toward it. The FAA has prohibited controllers from relying on pilots to maintain visual separation in busy airspace since this crash.
The poorly designed helicopter route in use at the time of the crash provided only a scant 75 feet of vertical separation between a helicopter and a plane landing on Reagan's secondary runway, and that was only true if the helicopter stuck to the riverbank. That doesn't allow enough separation to account for the accepted level of error in a Black Hawk's altimeter, and the NTSB found the helicopter was flying nearly 100 feet (30 meters) higher than its instruments read.
The main group of families of passengers on the plane, who were flying from Wichita, Kansas, said the report reinforces their call for Congress to pass aviation safety reforms and require aircraft to be equipped with systems that will help pilots know where traffic in the air is.
“It’s a simple concept anyone can understand: aircraft should be able to see each other in the sky. The technology is proven. All that’s required is the political will to do the right thing,” the Families of Flight 5342 group said in a statement Thursday.
“We have waited long enough. We waited for the NTSB. We waited for the Army. Both investigations are complete, and both make clear that collision avoidance technology must be part of the solution. There is nothing left for Congress to wait for,” they said.
Both the House and Senate passed different aviation safety bills, but lawmakers are still working on a compromise piece of legislation to bring up for a vote in both houses of Congress.
Associated Press Writer Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed.
FILE - Search efforts are seen around a wreckage site of a deadly midair collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Jan. 31, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. authorities added new torture charges Thursday to their case against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, ramping up pressure on the ousted authoritarian leader already fighting drug trafficking allegations.
Maduro and wife Cilia Flores, already charged with participating in a conspiracy to send cocaine into the U.S., now also face allegations of human rights abuses during his time as president of the oil-rich South American nation.
The updated indictment “alleges conduct that is truly unthinkable,” New York-based U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said outside the courthouse where the case is being handled. He said thousands of Venezuelans, and some Americans, were tortured to ensure that Maduro and Flores held onto power.
“This is the epitome of corruption,” McDonald said.
The allegations include electric shocks, beatings and asphyxiation at Maduro’s behest. Maduro, the indictment claims, signed off on torture methods, sought and got updates on specific victims' treatment, watched a video of a forced confession and personally threatened the killing of one prisoner’s child “as a form of psychological torture.”
Flores, a former legislator and attorney general, helped develop the repressive system and ordered the torture of some specific people, the indictment contends.
A message seeking comment was sent to Maduro's lawyer. Flores' attorney said he hadn't yet had time to review the new allegations.
The couple pleaded not guilty in the U.S. drug case first brought years ago against them and numerous alleged co-conspirators. Their attorneys have asked for the case to be dismissed on the grounds that they have immunity as the leader and first lady of a foreign country.
They face potential sentences of life in prison if convicted.
Maduro, who served as Venezuela’s president from 2013 until his capture in January, has been under investigation for years by the International Criminal Court over allegations of crimes against humanity, tied to his crackdown on opponents. He has always denied any wrongdoing.
Both Maduro and Flores have been behind bars in New York since early January, when forces seized them from their Caracas home in a middle-of-the-night raid. Flores’ lawyers unsuccessfully asked a judge Thursday to release her on house arrest.
Outside the courthouse, over a dozen demonstrators chanted slogans and held signs supporting her request.
The revised indictment includes several mentions of the involvement of Venezuela’s feared DGCIM military intelligence agency, which was headed for many years by one of Maduro’s co-defendants, Gen. Hugo Carvajal. He broke with Maduro years ago, pleaded guilty last year to drug trafficking charges in New York and has offered to testify against his former boss.
While the indictment doesn’t name the alleged torture victims, three are described as U.S. citizens. One was punched, subjected to electric shocks and forced to eat his own vomit during eight months of imprisonment, the indictment says. Another was beaten badly enough to necessitate a long hospital stay and had a gun stuck in his mouth. A third was handcuffed, hooded and beaten for two days every half an hour, suffering a permanent eye injury, the indictment said.
Maduro has long ignored lawsuits brought in U.S. courts by Americans who alleged they were beaten while in custody in Venezuela.
Among those who sued is Matthew Heath, a former U.S. Marine corporal from Tennessee. He was arrested at a roadblock in Venezuela in 2020 and held in custody for more than two years.
In May, Heath and another former prisoner won a $300 million default judgment against Maduro and other top Venezuelan officials for overseeing a pattern of torture. The lawsuit, brought under a federal anti-terrorism law, included allegations of waterboarding, electrocution, threats of rape with a nightstick, administration of mind-altering medications and the repeated use of a cramped cell nicknamed “El Tigrito.”
“It’s incredible to see a dictator in court,” Heath said Thursday upon learning of the new charges. “The Maduro prosecution will do more to prevent the kidnapping of Americans by rogue regimes than a hundred press releases from the United Nations.”
Meanwhile, Flores' lawyers argued that Flores, 69, has medical problems that cannot be treated effectively in jail. She has lost 25 pounds (11 kilograms) while imprisoned at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, might have suffered a minor heart attack in July, has “lingering lightheadedness, dizziness and shortness of breath” and has been told that she might need heart surgery, the attorneys said.
They also said she suffered permanent scarring when she was “thrown against a wall or dresser” during her capture.
Prosecutors opposed the bail request, saying that Flores was an “extreme” flight risk and has been taken for treatment at a local hospital when needed.
U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied Flores’ request. He noted, among other things, that she’s unwilling to undergo catheterization in jail in order to determine the cause of her heart problems and the appropriate steps for treatment.
He also pushed back at the notion that her high blood pressure was life threatening, noting she’s already on medication for that.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has defended the raid to capture Maduro as a “surgical law enforcement operation.” Maduro has called himself a prisoner of war and his capture a kidnapping.
Goodman reported from Miami. Associated Press writers Larry Neumeister and Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this report.
This photo made with a smartphone shows U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald speaking to reporters outside a federal courthouse following the announcement of new charges against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Philip Marcelo)
FILE - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores wave after his swearing-in ceremony for a third term at the National Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
