The Army has avoided accountability and shirked oversight months after the deadly midair collision between a passenger jet and a military helicopter in Washington, dozens of family members said in a letter to the Army’s top official, calling for action and greater transparency.

Family members have praised lawmakers, the National Transportation Safety Board and Transportation Department in their assessment of “urgency and effectiveness of the response” of officials involved in probing the disaster, which killed 67 people in January when an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with American Eagle 5342 over the Potomac River on final approach to Reagan National Airport.

The Army stands alone in its lack of transparency and candor, 168 family members and loved ones said in a letter addressed to Army Secretary Dan Driscoll on Wednesday and obtained by The Washington Post. Army officials have not had meaningful dialogue with families since a short briefing from Army aviation officials in the days after the collision, with the families noting the rare disclosures related to the incident seemed deliberately timed near holidays to minimize public attention.

“These actions demonstrate the Army’s willingness to circumvent official processes and resist oversight when deflecting scrutiny. At the same time, the Army has cited process while persistently refusing to accept responsibility or even acknowledge the families throughout these ordeals,” the families wrote.

The Army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Senior Army leaders have acknowledged the frustrations and intend to meet with families later this month, around the time of scheduled NTSB hearings, an Army official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal preparations.

The Army has provided few details about the collision, citing its ongoing safety investigation, the lead effort by NTSB to probe the incident and related litigation.

Tim Lilley, whose son Sam was first officer on the American Airlines flight, said the Army owns the majority of accountability for the incident. Lilley, who flew the same routes around Washington as an Army Black Hawk pilot before his career in private aviation, said training shortfalls and a culture of complacency within the involved Army unit were significant factors.

“They haven’t come out and said, ‘We messed up, and this is what we’re going to do to make sure we don’t mess up again.’ That’s what we want to hear,” Lilley said.

Federal officials have since disclosed that a hotline between the Pentagon and the FAA was offline three years before the crash, underlining a limited lack of awareness in the capital region, where civilian and government aircraft share crowded airspace.

The Black Hawk pilots, who were conducting a training flight, were not using a transponder — a device designed to broadcast location to aviation officials. Unlike commercial aviation, where transponders are required, military flights may often turn them off for security reasons. The Army, in the wake of the crash, said it would allow fewer exemptions, though it has maintained the inactive transponder did not play a role in the incident. It is unclear how the Army reached this conclusion when officials have said they are not ready to discuss findings.

A Post investigation also found it was possible that the Black Hawk crew mistook another airplane for Flight 5342 and, amid the bright lights in the capital area, was unaware it was on a path to intersect. The Black Hawk crew was flying above the mandated 200-foot ceiling, though it remains unclear why.

Survivors are asking the Army for a dedicated family liaison, a commitment to transparency by providing regular updates and concrete measures taken to prevent another tragedy, the letter said.

The families also called on Driscoll to support an inspector general audit separate from the crash investigation, similar to Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy’s support for an independent probe. Such an inquiry, requested by more than two dozen U.S. senators, would scrutinize coordination with federal aviation officials, military pilot training and flight operations in the Washington airspace.

If that inquiry is launched, the letter calls for the Army to release any public findings with only “legally required redactions and brief explanations for withheld material.”

Although the families have said they understand the Army’s limitations in providing information during an ongoing investigation, they point to the urgent responsibility for cooperation with other federal agencies, given the uniquely tragic mix of three U.S. soldiers and 64 civilians dead. The family members of the Black Hawk crew are not signatories of the letter.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) told Driscoll in a hearing in early June that the families had grown increasingly frustrated by a lack of communication and encouraged the Army secretary to be more “compassionate.”

Driscoll said the Army is “doing everything we can to learn from the incident to ensure that it never occurs again,” though the ongoing investigations and related lawsuit have constrained their ability to be transparent. “The best advice we’ve received from counsel to date is to let those play out,” he said.

Army leaders have reviewed a scorecard the families have published that gives them a failing grade, the Army official said. The military is process oriented, and the standard procedure is to not discuss details before investigations are released.

“This isn’t a common occurrence,” the official said. “Finding the right touch is difficult.”

Doug Lane, who lost his wife Christine Conrad Lane and son Spencer aboard the flight, said other involved government agencies have taken concerns seriously and families have been encouraged by progress, like efforts to modernize air traffic control.

“Unfortunately, the Army hasn’t shown the same engagement. They’ve declined to meet with families, brushed off bipartisan audit requests from 28 U.S. senators, and seem more focused on managing optics than learning from what happened,” he said. “Beyond the fact that this is unacceptable on a basic human level, we believe that our collective voices are essential to any good faith effort to improve safety.”

Lt. Gen. Gregory J. Brady, the Army’s chief independent investigator, told lawmakers who raised the prospect of a separate inquiry that the Army would wait for its own investigation to finish, alongside an NTSB probe, to determine “what, if any, additional investigation is required in light of the concerns you raise.”

Brady’s response was sent to Congress on June 27, the Friday before the July 4 recess. Families noted that the sequencing was similar to the Army’s disclosure of an incident on May 1, when a Black Hawk helicopter lost radio contact for 20 seconds near the Pentagon, prompting two aborted commercial plane landings at Reagan National Airport. Those details were also released on a Friday, just before Memorial Day.

“In addition to being extremely disheartening to those of us directly affected by the January 29 collision, this troubling pattern also suggests a lack of operational readiness and ongoing risks to our service members,” families said in their letter. The Army official disputed the notion the timing was calculated, saying the preference is to release information as soon as they are able.

Lilley, the former Black Hawk pilot, said he was concerned the Army’s investigation will lay the blame chiefly on the helicopter crew — rather than problems with the training pipeline, attrition of experienced pilots and commanders who are not properly managing flight risks.

“Leadership is not showing the Army core values,” he said of the top officials and their commitment to the bedrock principles drilled into every soldier. “Honor and integrity. … Neither one of those are coming through here.”