Kristen Miller-Zahn had to watch her brother die “over, and over, and over again” on television following his passing.
Dustin Miller was one of the 67 passengers aboard American Airlines flight 5342, which collided with a U.S. Army helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. on January 29. There were no survivors.
“You never want to witness your loved one die on TV,” Miller-Zahn said. “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. You’re just constantly thinking, ‘Did they know anything? Did they feel anything?’”
Miller-Zahn, a Santa Barbara resident, was at home when she first turned on the TV and saw the crash. The plane was about to touch down at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, flying from Wichita, Kansas.
“My heart sank because I’m from Kansas, and I knew I might know someone on the plane,” she said. “I didn’t think it was my brother. But I called my mom and she said she took him to the airport, and he wasn’t answering her calls. That’s when I knew.”
The family waited anxiously for confirmation from American Airlines. “The news basically told us that our loved one was dead before we could get anything from the airlines,” she said.
Miller-Zahn described her brother as “funny, kind, and good-natured.” He claimed the last seat in first class, traveling a day early for work in his role as a senior IT specialist for Watermark Properties. He FaceTimed friends during the flight, who got to watch him chat and laugh with a flight attendant and a team of Russian figure skaters.
The 43-year-old flew often, and was known for his wingshots on Facebook.
“He was just a guy going to work, like he did all the time,” Miller-Zahn said.
She does not want her little brother’s death to be in vain. “I want this to remain in the public eye until there’s accountability,” she said. “For my brother and everyone else, I don’t want this to be swept under the rug.”
The Miller family is now pursuing legal action against the U.S. Army and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), claiming that the tragic crash was preventable.
“Civilian and military aircraft should never come close to one another, let alone collide,” said lead attorney Robert Curtis of Santa Barbara–based law firm Foley Bezek Behle & Curtis LLP, who are representing the Millers.
The lawsuit will focus on alleged failures by both the Army and the FAA, including breakdowns in air traffic control, operational oversight, and adherence to safety protocols, Curtis said.
He cited the “startling inaction” of the FAA, despite the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) finding that there were 15,000 near misses between planes and helicopters between October 2021 and January 2025.
“That is one near miss per 62 flights during the last four years,” Curtis added. “In 85 of the near misses, the plane and helicopter were within 1,500 feet of one another. And with the speed at which the two crafts are flying, they were within 5 seconds of colliding.”
“We shouldn’t have to wait until 67 people die to make a change,” he stressed. “Why was nothing done?”
“The FAA had all of this data, anonymously reported data from traffic controllers and pilots, but they did nothing to change helicopter routes and plane routes,” Curtis said.
On March 14, the FAA released a statement that it “is taking a series of steps to improve safety around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) that follows the NTSB’s recommendations,” including permanently restricting non-essential helicopter operations around DCA and prohibiting the use of certain runways when helicopters are operating near DCA.
“The FAA will continue to closely support the NTSB-led investigation and take action as necessary to ensure public safety,” it said.
For Miller-Zahn, the main thing she wants to see come of this tragedy is that it never happens again. “It’s infuriating what happened to these people, because of incompetence and utter negligence,” she said. “I lost my brother; my mother and father are devastated. It’s a shame that he’s gone from this world.”
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