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.

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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.

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — A pilot was taken to the hospital with injuries Wednesday after a small plane crashed into a residential neighborhood in southern New Hampshire, authorities said.

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Emergency crews found the aircraft upside down in a snow bank in the parking lot of a wooded condominium complex in Nashua Wednesday afternoon.

Police said the pilot was the only person on board and was the only person injured. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.

The Velocity V-Twin plane crashed at the Cannongate Condominiums shortly after departing from the nearby Nashua Airport around 2:10 p.m. local time, according to the FAA.

Aerial video from NBC10 Boston showed damage to the roof of one of the condos near the crash site.

President Donald Trump intends to preview his agenda for next year and beyond in a live speech from the White House on Wednesday night. His remarks are coming at a crucial time as he tries to rebuild his steadily eroding popularity.

The White House offered few details about what the Republican president intends to emphasize in the 9 p.m. EST speech. Public polling shows most U.S. adults are frustrated with his handling of the economy as inflation picked up after his tariffs raised prices and hiring slowed.

The Associated Press is providing a livestream of Trump’s address below:

Contributing: Josh Boak, Associated Press

Fourteen months after the Pohlad family announced it was exploring a sale of the Minnesota Twins, and four months after it instead decided to maintain control of the team and take on limited partners, the transaction is finally complete.

Tom Pohlad

Glick Family Investments, which is based in New York, and Värde Partners co-founder and co-executive chair George G. Hicks, alongside other Minnesota business leaders, have joined on as principal investors, while Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold will also be a limited partner.

The reveal comes alongside even bigger news: Tom Pohlad, who has been leading the sale process on behalf of the family for the past 14 months, will succeed his brother, Joe, as the team’s executive chair. With Major League Baseball approval — expected to come early next year — Tom Pohlad will also take over as the organization’s control person, a role currently being filled by his uncle, Jim Pohlad.

“As a family, this time has caused us to do a lot of self-reflection about what’s been working and what needs to improve in the organization,” Tom Pohlad said. “When we took a hard look at things, it’s undeniable that we haven’t won enough baseball games, the financial health of the club has been put in jeopardy and we’ve got a fanbase that has lost trust in us as owners and, as a result, the organization and the direction it’s headed.”

That being said, the family decided it was time for new leadership and that the conclusion of the transaction was the right time for it.

The idea of moving from Joe to Tom has been in the works for about a month, Tom said, admitting that the decision has been hard on the relationship between the two brothers, as well as on their father, Bob, and uncles, Jim and Bill as Joe had wanted to remain in the role. The Pohlad family has owned the Twins since 1984 when patriarch Carl Pohlad, who was Joe and Tom’s grandfather, purchased it for $44 million.

Joe Pohlad, who had been a longtime Twins employee, took over as executive chair from Jim in late 2022, and as he steps to the side, he called his time as executive chair “one of the greatest responsibilities and privileges,” of his life in a statement released by the team.

“Now is the time to put new leadership in place and to have a renewed sense of energy, a renewed sense of focus, a different level of accountability and ultimately a clear direction on where we’re taking this organization,” Tom Pohlad said.

As he takes over leadership of the team, Tom is well aware of the fact that he has his work cut out for him.

His brother Joe was at the helm when the Twins doled out the largest contract in team history to shortstop Carlos Correa, who has since been traded in an effort to shed salary. Joe oversaw a team in 2023 with a club-record payroll that went further in the playoffs than any team in the past two decades.

But behind the scenes, the Twins’ debt had been climbing for years, due in part to a variety of factors — COVID-19 shut the ballpark doors to fans and attendance has decreased in recent years, television revenue has dipped and ownership has chosen “to continue to invest beyond what the revenues support,” Tom Pohlad said in an effort to field a competitive team.

“People like to say we’re not committed to investing in this team,” he said. “Five hundred million of debt would tell you the exact opposite.”

In response, after reaching the American League Division Series in 2023, team ownership slashed payroll by around $30 million. The move, combined with Joe Pohlad’s comments about right-sizing the payroll, drew sharp criticism from a fanbase that has grown increasingly critical of ownership over recent years.

The Twins collapsed over the last six weeks of the 2024 season, missing the playoffs entirely after holding postseason odds around 95% in August. A second-straight disappointing season led to a sell-off at the trade deadline, another fourth-place finish and the firing of manager Rocco Baldelli, who has since been replaced by Derek Shelton.

After two painful years for Twins fans, Tom Pohlad acknowledged how upset the fanbase is with the family and expressed the need to win fans’ trust back. This, he said, was something he embraced, and viewed as an opportunity for the organization.

“I think the work of earning their trust comes with two things: communication and accountability,” Tom said. “We’ve got to do a better job of telling fans where we’re going there, and how we’re going to get there and why we’re doing the things we’re doing, and I commit to that going forward. On the accountability side, we’ve got to figure out what’s keeping us from having more consistent success than we’ve had for the past.”

The work for him starts first with earning the trust of team employees and getting to know the business of baseball — most recently, Tom has been serving as the Executive Chairman of Pohlad Companies — and then figuring out what needs to be done differently to breed success moving forward.

But as a long period of ownership uncertainty over the past 14 months comes to an end, Tom made one thing for certain:

“We’re in it for the long haul,” he said of his family.

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