The grieving father of the 28-year-old American Airlines pilot is seeking stricter regulations in the wake of a catastrophic air collision near Washington, D.C.
Sam Lily said that when a US Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter collided with an airplane, two aircraft jumped into the Potomac River on January 29th while the plane was descent at Ronald Reagan International Airport, the American Airlines 5342. He was the assistant officer of Flight 5342. .
All 67 people on both aircraft have died, making it the country’s most fatal air disaster since 2001.
“(Sam) was doing great things in his career,” former Army helicopter pilot Timothy Lilly told Fox News Digital. “He was doing great things in his personal life, he was set up to get married.”
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In this photo, shared by Timothy Lilley, co-pilot Sam Lilley, who died on deadly American Airlines Flight 5342, smiles from the plane’s cockpit. (Timothy Lilly)
Timothy Lilly served in the Army flying Black Hawk helicopters for 20 years – the same aircraft that his son collided with the plane he was flying with, piloting a medical helicopter and later on to the local airline. I participated.
All three parts of my world collided with Potomac that night.
In the wake of his son’s death, Timothy has used his experience of calling on lawmakers and military officials to enact change, promising that part of Sam’s legacy is aviation safety.
Now he asks the military to stop flight operations at civilian airports, improve training for pilots, and require aircraft to request operational traffic warning and collision avoidance systems (TCAS) within Class B airspace. It’s there.
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The wreckage of American Airlines Flight 5342 was drawn from the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan National Airport on Monday, February 3, 2025. The plane collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter on Wednesday, January 29th, killing 67 people. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, Getty Images)
Currently, according to Lily, military aircraft do not need to be equipped with TCAs when flying in Class B airspace.
“It is said to be true that most aviation regulations are written in blood,” Lily said. “That means something terrible has to happen for us to make a difference.”
Lily plans to testify before Congress, and said high-level army officials are accepting his proposal and paving the way for a safer sky future.
The crew recovered the wreckage of American Airlines Flight 5342 Flight 5342 on the Potomac River near Washington, DC on January 30, 2025. The plane was involved in a fatal collision with the US Black Hawk helicopter the night before. (Lee Green from Fox News Digital)
Lily believes that Sam’s passion for flight grew from seeing him as a pilot.
After completing his degree in marketing and logistics from Georgia Southern University, Sam moved to aviation. He began flight training in 2019, and the following year he obtained his commercial license and became a flight instructor. Two years before crashing, he began flying for American Airlines’ regional airline PSA.
“If he stayed at PSA long enough, he would have ended up at American Airlines,” Lily said. “He wanted to become an international captain and fly the 777 to Europe and Asia.”
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In this photo, shared by Timothy Lilly, co-pilot Sam Lilly, who died on deadly American Airlines Flight 5342, celebrates his career achievements. (Timothy Lilly)
Sam is engaged to his longtime girlfriend Lydia, and the two were planning to start a family. The day before his death, Sam’s mother went to the wedding venue for the couple, and the ceremony was scheduled for the fall.
However, Sam’s dream came to a halt when the aircraft and helicopter collided and crashed into the ice Potomac on January 29th.
In this photo, shared by Timothy Lilly, co-pilot Sam Lilly, who died on the deadly American Airlines Flight 5342, proposes to his girlfriend, Lydia. (Timothy Lilly)
Timothy Lilly was in New York City for work in the event of a crash, but initially saw the incident report on the news.
“I noticed there was a crash on the plane, but of course it sparked my interest,” Lily said. “But there was a million chances that it would become Sam.”
When Lily realized that the plane was owned by the PSA, he contacted Sam, but never confirmed anything unthinkable.
It was heartbreaking, it was just heartbreaking.
Lily travels to a tragic location and begins to connect what caused Sam’s plane to crash, but many of his questions remain unanswered.
Investigators are working to retrieve data from the black boxes of helicopters that sustained flooding during recovery efforts. Audio recordings from Sam’s aircraft confirmed that the pilot tried to avoid the impact.
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“The crew responded verbally,” NTSB investigator Bryce Vanning said he was in charge.
In-flight data recorders show that “planes are beginning to increase their pitch,” according to Banning. “The shock sound was heard about a second later, then continued at the end of the recording.”
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A full National Road Safety Commission investigation could take up to a year, but authorities hope to prepare a preliminary report within 30 days. Investigators are also considering the possibility that the airport’s control towers may not be fully staffed at the time of the crash.
Until the investigation is complete, the victim’s family can only speculate about the conflict in which a loved one was killed. Lily believes that as a former Black Hawk pilot who flew the same Potomac route “Hundreds of Times” he could offer a unique perspective.
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“There are hundreds of things out there that could have been wrong,” Lily said. “Maybe both pilots looked at the radio at once and bowed their heads. Maybe another aircraft thought it was. Maybe they saw the light on the ground and then they said, I thought it was an aircraft, I don’t know what happened in that cockpit.
Sam Lilly was a pilot on an American Airlines plane that collided with a Black Hawk helicopter near Washington, DC on January 29, 2025. (Timothy Lilly)
Despite the tragedy, Lily finds peace among the families of the other victims and by honoring his son.
Lily told Fox News Digital that his local Georgia community was gathering around his family and that his company sent a private jet to transport Sam’s loved one to the crash location.
“There were 67 people who lost their lives. And there were new widows and new orphans, and families who lost two children, Olympic hopefuls and a large caliber lawyer,” Lily said. Ta. “Everyone involved in this accident wants to be friends with the Black Hawk (on the plane).”
He is also looking for ways to honor his son, such as seeking aviation safety and getting a tattoo to remember Sam.
Timothy Lilly shows the tattoo she received to honor her son, Sam Lilly. (Timothy Lilly)
PSA Airlines awarded Sam the honorary captain’s title after his death, saying “the title reflects not only his technical expertise but also his significant impact on the airline.”
American Airlines did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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“It was a tragedy and these lives ended before any of us prepared it,” Lily told Fox News Digital.
