The United States has clawed back $2 million in a lawsuit over a costly clash between military and civilian aircraft in San Diego. The feds sued a slew of defendants, including the City of San Diego and two aviation companies, after a Marine Corps Osprey got totaled in a tarmac tangle-up with a Twin Otter plane back in 2020.

On April 15, the United States reached a settlement in the case, pocketing $2,020,000 from the defendants, the Justice Department announced. The legal spat kicked off last year when Uncle Sam aimed at individuals and companies, including Christopher Sanders and Tac Air Ops for the incident at Brown Field Municipal Airport. The collision knocked a parked MV-22 “Osprey” out of commission after it got clipped by the taxiing “Twin Otter”, which was under the control of the accused Tac Air entities.

U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath underscored the financial blow to the Navy, calling the Osprey's loss "significant." "Securing an early resolution in this case achieved the right result," McGrath told the Justice Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Cile Glover-Rogers played a point in wrangling the settlement out of the defending parties.

For the record, the dismissed case is United States of America v. Christopher Sanders et al., 23-cv-1000-W-DDL – it variously accused the defendants of negligence and violating restrictive covenants.