Maryland officials have filed suit against the federal
government over an accident involving a state police helicopter in
which four people were fatally injured.
In its probable cause report, the NTSB said that ATC was a
"contributor" to the accident. The report said the cause of the
accident was "(t)he pilot's attempt to regain visual conditions by
performing a rapid descent and his failure to arrest the descent at
the minimum descent altitude during a nonprecision approach.
Contributing to the accident were (1) the pilot’s limited
recent instrument flight experience, (2) the lack of adherence to
effective risk management procedures by the Maryland State Police,
(3) the pilot’s inadequate assessment of the weather, which
led to his decision to accept the flight,, (4) the failure of the
Potomac Consolidated Terminal Radar Approach Control (PCT)
controller to provide the current Andrews Air Force Base weather
observation to the pilot, and (5) the increased workload on the
pilot due to inadequate Federal Aviation Administration air traffic
control handling by the Ronald Reagan National Airport Tower and
PCT controllers."
The NTSB findings are not admissible as evidence in court.
The Washington Post reports that the lawsuit holds that the
controllers did not provide adequate weather information, as is
cited in the NTSB report. A similar lawsuit filed by the only
survivor of the accident is seeking $50 million in damages.
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