Atlanta – Sam Lilley knew that he wanted to fly and began training to be a pilot, like his father, from the university.
“You really do not expect to meet people who find their purpose so early in life, and Sam found his flying,” said Kaitlin Sells, who met Lilley while they were students from Georgia Southern’s University.
Lilley was the first officer on board the Jet American Airlines Carrying 60 passengers and four crew members who It crashed in the air on Wednesday night With an army helicopter with three soldiers, legislators said in Georgia.
The authorities say there were no survivors after the two planes collapsed on the Potomac River in the country. MORE MORE AVIATION DISASTER Since 2001. at least 28 bodies They have been taken from the frozen waters of the river as recovery operations continue.
Lilley and the rest of the American Airlines crew traveled on a daily route from Wichita, Kansas, to Washington, DC, at the time of the collision. The soldiers aboard the Black Hawk helicopter were carrying out an annual night -domain training flight, said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, adding that they were a “quite experienced crew.”
This 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 has also been a pilot for a long time and served as a helicopter pilot of the US Army. Uu. For 20 years, noting that he flew routes similar inside and outside the pentagon.
“I was very proud when Sam became a pilot,” He wrote on Facebook. “Now it hurts so much that I can’t even cry to sleep. I know I will see him again, but my heart is breaking. “
Timothy Lilley said his son was standing out in his career and his personal life at the time of his death and was committed to marry at the end of this year.
Sam Lilley graduated in 2018 with a marketing title, but decided to become a pilot. He had previously graduated from Richmond Hill High School, just south of Savannah, Georgia, where he had been an active member of the Christian Church of the Coastal Community.
A local news of 2011 highlighted his efforts to raise money to build a water well in a Zambia village.
Sells, his university friend, said there was no one more appropriate to be a pilot.
“There was no one to care more. There was no one to be more passionate, “said Sells, saying that Lilley valued” care for people and trusting him. “
Outside the plane, Lilley dedicated himself to making others happy and the type of person who was always the first on a dance floor, said Sells.
“I don’t think I saw that man in a bad mood, spreading negativity,” said Sells. “It was the type of person where if someone was not having a good time or someone was upset, he would do everything within his reach to get them out of him.”
The American Airlines flight captain was Jonathan Campos, 34, 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 I wanted to be free and fly and fly like a bird,” said Lane.
She told the newspaper that she spoke with Campos on Wednesday, just before the fateful flight. He told him that he was anxious for an upcoming Cruise for the Caribbean with the family.
Campos graduated in 2015 from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautics University in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he studied aeronautical sciences, according to the university.
Danasia Elder was a hostess on the commercial flight, WSOC-TV in Charlotte, North Carolina, he reported.
Elder’s brother -in -law, Brandon Payne, described her as “full of life”, highlighting his love for God, his children and travel. I was married and had two children, Kayden and Dallas.
“She was a great wife, a great mother, a great friend,” Payne told the news station. “She was very bright, very intelligent. She was an entrepreneur. This flight thing was like one of his dreams he wanted to do. “
Payne said she is proud of her sister -in -law for pursuing her dream.
“She would want them to do the same thing she did. Pursue your dreams, whatever happens. Do not let anything scare you, take you away. He only believes in yourself, believe in God and follow the way, ”said Payne.
Ryan O’Hara was one of the three soldiers aboard the Black Hawk helicopter.
“Ryan was the most committed and disciplined person with whom I remember working,” said Josh Muhlendorf, a senior instructor pilot in the US Army. “He had great integrity.”
The two flew numerous occasions on the same route on DC several years before the fatal accident and O’Hara took the rules and procedures seriously, according to Mehlendorf.
“Ryan was one of those crew leaders who always supported us,” he said. “It’s really difficult to endure a boy as professional and excellent as him.”
The governor of Mississippi, Tate Reeves, said on the social platform X that the state was mourning for the death of Andrew Eaves, who was also aboard the army helicopter.
Eaves was from the small town of Brooksville in the east of Mississippi, Reeves said.
His wife Carrie Eaves confirmed that she was in the helicopter in a Facebook post on Thursday.
“We ask him to pray for our family and friends and for all the other families that suffer today. We ask for peace while we cried, ”said the publication.
He also asked that people refrain from publishing negative comments on social networks.
“These families that children do not need to suffer more pain,” he wrote.
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Yamat reported Las Vegas. Associated Press Nadia lathan journalists in Austin, Texas, and Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed.
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