A federal lawsuit in Nevada accusing air traffic controllers of being responsible for a fatal 2016 airplane crash near Reno-Tahoe International Airport has been reopened by a judge. Families of the pilot and a passenger who perished in the crash are seeking up to $6.5 million in damages from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The lawsuit was initially dismissed in 2022 by U.S. District Court Judge Miranda Du, who attributed the crash solely to the negligence of the 73-year-old pilot. However, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned this ruling, prompting a re-evaluation to determine if the air traffic controller shared any responsibility for the deaths of the pilot, John Brown, and passenger, James Elliker.

The lawsuit alleges that air traffic controllers were negligent in failing to communicate clearly that there were two Boeing 757s, a UPS cargo plane, and a FedEx cargo plane, cleared to land ahead of Brown’s single-engine Beechcraft A-36 Bonanza. Due to this miscommunication, Brown mistakenly believed there was only one plane, leading to a collision with the second cargo plane’s turbulence and a subsequent crash in a recreational vehicle park near the runway.

The appellate court emphasized that the controller’s failure to provide proper instructions for visual separation, as outlined in the FAA’s Air Traffic Control manual, constituted a breach of duty. As a result, the court directed the district court to reassess whether the pilot was solely responsible for the crash in light of the controller’s breach of reasonable care.

Judge Du has officially reopened the case and requested the parties involved to submit a joint status report by August 27 outlining steps to resolve the case in accordance with the 9th Circuit’s ruling. The focus remains on determining the extent of the air traffic controller’s responsibility in the tragic incident.