The grieving father of the 28-year-old American Airways pilot is asking for stricter laws within the wake of the devastating midair collision close to Washington, D.C.
Sam Lilley was the primary officer on American Airways Flight 5342 when a U.S. Military Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter collided with the aircraft, inflicting the 2 plane to plunge into the Potomac River in the course of the aircraft’s descent into Ronald Reagan Worldwide Airport on Jan. 29.
All 67 individuals aboard each plane had been killed, making it the nation’s deadliest air catastrophe since 2001.
“[Sam] was doing nice in his profession,” Timothy Lilley, a former Military helicopter pilot, advised Fox Information Digital. “He was doing nice in his private life, he was set to be married.”
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On this photograph shared by Timothy Lilley, Sam Lilley, the co-pilot who perished on deadly American Airways Flight 5342, smiles from the cockpit of an airplane. (Timothy Lilley)
Timothy Lilley served 20 years within the Military flying Black Hawk helicopters – the identical plane that collided with the aircraft his son was flying – earlier than piloting medical helicopters and later becoming a member of a regional airline.
All three elements of my world collided over the Potomac that evening.
Within the wake of his son’s demise, Timothy is leveraging his expertise to name on lawmakers and navy officers to enact change, promising that a part of Sam’s legacy might be aviation security.
Now he’s asking the navy to stop flight operations at civilian airports, revamp coaching for pilots and require plane to have an operational Site visitors Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) whereas inside Class B airspace.
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Wreckage from American Airways Flight 5342 is pulled from the Potomac River close to Ronald Reagan Nationwide Airport on Monday, February 3, 2025. The aircraft collided with a U.S. Military Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday, January 29, killing 67 individuals. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name, Inc by way of Getty Pictures)
At the moment, navy plane should not required to be outfitted with TCAS when flying in Class B airspace, which includes the most important civilian airports throughout the nation, in response to Lilley.
“It has been mentioned, and it’s true, that the majority aviation laws are written in blood,” Lilley mentioned. “That implies that one thing horrible has to occur for us to make a change.”
Lilley is planning to testify in entrance of Congress and mentioned that high-level Military officers have been receptive to his solutions, paving the best way for a way forward for safer skies.
Crew retrieve wreckage of American Airways Flight 5342 within the Potomac River close to Washington, D.C, on January 30, 2025. The aircraft was concerned in a deadly collision with a U.S. Military Black Hawk helicopter the earlier evening. (Leigh Inexperienced for Fox Information Digital)
Lilley believes that Sam’s ardour for flying grew from watching him as a pilot.
After incomes a level in advertising and marketing and logistics from Georgia Southern College, Sam shifted to aviation. He began flight coaching in 2019, obtained his industrial license the next yr and have become a flight teacher. Two years earlier than the crash, he started flying for American Airways’ regional airline, PSA.
“If he stayed at PSA lengthy sufficient, he was going to finish up at American Airways,” Lilley mentioned. “He wished to be a global captain and fly the 777s to Europe and Asia.”
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On this photograph shared by Timothy Lilley, Sam Lilley, the co-pilot who perished on deadly American Airways Flight 5342, celebrates a profession accomplishment. (Timothy Lilley)
Sam was additionally engaged to his long-time girlfriend, Lydia, and the 2 had been planning on beginning a household. The day earlier than his demise, Sam’s mom went wedding ceremony venue looking for the couple, with the ceremony scheduled for the autumn.
Nonetheless, Sam’s desires had been halted when the plane and helicopter collided, plunging into the icy Potomac on Jan. 29.
On this photograph shared by Timothy Lilley, Sam Lilley, the co-pilot who perished on deadly American Airways Flight 5342, proposes to his girlfriend, Lydia. (Timothy Lilley)
Timothy Lilley was in New York Metropolis for work on the time of the crash, initially seeing studies of the incident on the information.
“I spotted there had been a aircraft crash, which, in fact, sparked my curiosity,” Lilley mentioned. “However the probability of it being Sam was one and 1,000,000.”
When Lilley realized the aircraft was owned by PSA, he reached out to Sam however by no means heard again, confirming the unthinkable.
That was heart-wrenching, it was simply heart-wrenching.
Lilley traveled to the location of the tragedy and started piecing collectively what had induced Sam’s aircraft to crash, however lots of his questions stay unanswered.
Investigators are working to retrieve information from the helicopter’s black field, which sustained water injury throughout restoration efforts. Audio recordings from Sam’s plane confirmed that the pilots tried to evade affect.
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“The crew had a verbal response,” Brice Banning, NTSB investigator in cost, mentioned.
The information recorder throughout the plane reveals “the airplane starting to extend its pitch,” in response to Banning. “Sounds of affect had been audible about one second later, adopted by the top of the recording.”
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A whole Nationwide Transportation Security Board investigation may take as much as a yr, however authorities are hoping to have a preliminary report inside 30 days. Investigators are additionally trying into the chance that the airport’s management tower was not absolutely staffed on the time of the crash.
Till the investigation concludes, victims’ households can solely speculate in regards to the collision that killed their family members. Lilley, as a former Black Hawk pilot who flew the identical Potomac route “a whole lot of instances,” believes he can provide a singular perspective.
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“There are a whole lot of issues that would have gone unsuitable in there,” Lilley mentioned. “Possibly each pilots had their heads down trying on the radio directly, perhaps they thought a distinct plane was that one, perhaps they noticed lights on the bottom and thought it was the plane, perhaps they had been doing an emergency process coaching, and so they had been distracted by that. I do not know what occurred in that cockpit.”
Sam Lilley was the pilot of the American Airways aircraft that collided with a Black Hawk helicopter close to Washington, D.C., on January 29, 2025. (Timothy Lilley)
Regardless of the tragedy, Lilley is discovering peace among the many households of the opposite victims and by honoring his son.
Lilley advised Fox Information Digital that his native Georgia group has rallied round their household, along with his firm sending a non-public jet to move Sam’s family members to the location of the crash.
“There have been 67 individuals who misplaced their lives, and there have been households there that had new widows and new orphans and who misplaced two kids and Olympic hopefuls and high-caliber attorneys,” Lilley mentioned. “Each single individual concerned on this accident, I’d wish to be mates with – each within the Black Hawk and within the [airplane].”
He’s additionally on the lookout for methods to honor his son, together with pushing for aviation security and getting a tattoo in remembrance of Sam.
Timothy Lilley reveals the tattoo he obtained to honor his son, Sam Lilley, who perished on deadly American Airways Flight 5342. (Timothy Lilley)
PSA airways has posthumously awarded Sam with the title of honorary captain, saying in an announcement that “the title displays not solely his technical experience but additionally the profound affect he had on our airline household.”
American Airways didn’t instantly reply to Fox Information Digital’s request for remark.
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“It is a tragedy, these lives ended method earlier than any of us had been prepared for it,” Lilley advised Fox Information Digital.
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