ATLANTA (news agencies) — Sam Lilley knew he wanted to fly and began training to be a pilot, like his father, right out of college.
“You don’t really expect to meet people that find their purpose so early on in life, and Sam found his in flying,” said Kaitlin Sells, who met Lilley while they were students at Georgia Southern University.
Lilley was the first officer aboard the American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members that collided midair Wednesday night with an Army helicopter carrying three soldiers, legislators in Georgia said.
Authorities say there were no survivors after the two aircraft plummeted into the Potomac River in the country’s deadliest aviation disaster since 2001. At least 28 bodies have been pulled from the icy waters of the river as recovery operations continue.
Lilley and the rest of the American Airlines crew were traveling on a daily direct route from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington, D.C., at the time of the collision. The soldiers aboard the Black Hawk helicopter were conducting an annual night proficiency training flight, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, adding they were a “fairly experienced crew.”
Here is what we know so far about some members of the two flight crews:
Lilley’s father, Timothy Lilley, told WAGA-TV in Atlanta that he was in Washington waiting for answers.
“This is undoubtedly the worst day of my life,” said Timothy Lilley, who also is a longtime pilot and served as a U.S. Army helicopter pilot for 20 years, noting he flew similar routes in and out of the Pentagon.
“I was so proud when Sam became a pilot,” he wrote on Facebook. “Now it hurts so bad I can’t even cry myself to sleep. I know I’ll see him again but my heart is breaking.”
Timothy Lilley said his son was excelling in his career and personal life at the time of his death and was engaged to be married later this year.
Sam Lilley graduated in 2018 with a degree in marketing but decided to become a pilot. He had earlier graduated from Richmond Hill High School, just south of Savannah, Georgia, where he had been an active member of Coastal Community Christian Church.
A local news story from 2011 highlighted his efforts to raise money to build a water well in a Zambian village.
Sells, his friend from college, said there was no one better suited to be a pilot.
“There was no one that cared more. There was no one that was more passionate,” Sells said, saying Lilley valued “taking care of people and them putting their trust in him.”
Outside the plane, Lilley was devoted to making others happy and the type of person who always was the first onto a dance floor, Sells said.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that man in a bad mood, spreading negativity,” Sells said. “He was the type of person where if someone was not having a good time or someone was upset, he would do everything in his power to pull them out of it.”
The captain of the American Airlines flight was 34-year-old Jonathan Campos, according to multiple media reports. His aunt, Beverly Lane, told the New York Times that Campos had wanted to be a pilot since the age of 3.
“I think he wanted to be free, and be able to fly and soar like a bird,” Lane said.
She told the newspaper she talked with Campos on Wednesday, just before the fateful flight. He told her he was looking forward to an upcoming Caribbean cruise with family.
Campos was a 2015 graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he studied Aeronautical Science, according to the university.
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