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 US Military Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter collided with the airplane, inflicting the 2 plane to plunge into the Potomac River throughout the airplane’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 great in his career,” Timothy Lilley, a former Military helicopter pilot, instructed Fox Information Digital. “He was doing great in his personal life, he was set to be married.”
Timothy Lilley served 20 years within the Military flying Black Hawk helicopters – the identical plane that collided with the airplane his son was flying – earlier than piloting medical helicopters and later becoming a member of a regional airline.
Within the wake of his son’s dying, Timothy is leveraging his expertise to name on lawmakers and army officers to enact change, promising that a part of Sam’s legacy will likely be aviation security.
Now he’s asking the army to stop flight operations at civilian airports, revamp coaching for pilots and require plane to have an operational Visitors Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) whereas inside Class B airspace.
At present, army plane will not be required to be geared up with TCAS when flying in Class B airspace, which contains the biggest civilian airports inside the nation, in keeping with Lilley.
“It’s been said, and it is true, that most aviation regulations are written in blood,” Lilley stated. “That means that something terrible has to happen for us to make a change.”
Lilley is planning to testify in entrance of Congress and stated that high-level Military officers have been receptive to his recommendations, paving the way in which for a way forward for safer skies.
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, bought his business 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 long enough, he was going to end up at American Airlines,” Lilley stated. “He wanted to be an international captain and fly the 777s to Europe and Asia.”
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 dying, Sam’s mom went wedding ceremony venue searching 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.
Timothy Lilley was in New York Metropolis for work on the time of the crash, initially seeing studies of the incident on the information.
Observe the NYP’s protection of the lethal DC airplane collision
“I realized there had been a plane crash, which, of course, sparked my interest,” Lilley stated. “But the chance of it being Sam was one and a million.”
When Lilley realized the airplane was owned by PSA, he reached out to Sam however by no means heard again, confirming the unthinkable.
Lilley traveled to the positioning of the tragedy and started piecing collectively what had brought about Sam’s airplane to crash, however a lot of his questions stay unanswered.
Investigators are working to retrieve information from the helicopter’s black field, which sustained water harm throughout restoration efforts. Audio recordings from Sam’s plane confirmed that the pilots tried to evade impression.
“The crew had a verbal reaction,” Brice Banning, NTSB investigator in cost, stated.
The information recorder inside the plane reveals “the airplane beginning to increase its pitch,” in keeping with Banning. “Sounds of impact were audible about one second later, followed by the end of the recording.”
An entire Nationwide Transportation Security Board investigation might take as much as a yr, however authorities are hoping to have a preliminary report inside 30 days. Investigators are additionally trying into the likelihood 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 concerning the collision that killed their family members. Lilley, as a former Black Hawk pilot who flew the identical Potomac route “hundreds of times,” believes he can provide a novel perspective.
“There are hundreds of things that could have gone wrong in there,” Lilley stated. “Maybe both pilots had their heads down looking at the radio at once, maybe they thought a different aircraft was that one, maybe they saw lights on the ground and thought it was the aircraft, maybe they were doing an emergency procedure training, and they were distracted by that. I don’t know what happened in that cockpit.”
Regardless of the tragedy, Lilley is discovering peace among the many households of the opposite victims and by honoring his son.
Lilley instructed Fox Information Digital that his native Georgia group has rallied round their household, along with his firm sending a personal jet to move Sam’s family members to the positioning of the crash.
“There were 67 people who lost their lives, and there were families there that had new widows and new orphans and who lost two children and Olympic hopefuls and high-caliber lawyers,” Lilley stated. “Every single person involved in this accident, I’d want to be friends with – both in the Black Hawk and in the [airplane].”
He’s additionally searching for methods to honor his son, together with pushing for aviation security and getting a tattoo in remembrance of Sam.
PSA airways has posthumously awarded Sam with the title of honorary captain, saying in a press release that “the title reflects not only his technical expertise but also the profound impact he had on our airline family.”
American Airways didn’t instantly reply to Fox Information Digital’s request for remark.
“It’s a tragedy, these lives ended way before any of us were ready for it,” Lilley instructed Fox Information Digital.
