Originally Posted by
MechEngr
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The benefit of suing the airline may be to allow the airline to use that as leverage against the FAA and the Army over their losses and maybe pressure both to take steps to eliminate the possibility of happening again.
Have I just missed it or has the US Army been very quiet about this event and what changes in procedures and equipment they might make?
Anticipating what may be a scathing NTSB report, and certainly will be a highly critical report, the FAA and - through some interagency process or similar path through the bureaucracy - the Army as well will already be experiencing significant leverage for reform. Perhaps it will be unprecedented leverage given the almost incomprehensible series of errors which occurred in this accident (not actually incomprehensible, because they happened in fact). And although it makes sense that the airline defendants will have their own reasons for trying to leverage significant reform, one has to wonder to what extent the airline industry as a whole already is taking as strong a position as possible on the many issues in the looming massive spending on new ATC technology and facilities, and (hopefully) new ATM architecture overall.
As for the Army's public presence about this accident, no, you have missed nothing. The Army's witnesses at the NTSB hearing were (imo) well prepared for testimony, but if any other public statements by Army officials have been made, I've missed them too. I would note that one of the purposes of the PAT flights is continuity of government missions. Obviously this would not be a subject on which the Army (or anyone else with official knowledge of and responsibility for same) will be saying much of anything.