Father of DC plane crash first officer from Georgia wants changes
Father of Georgia pilot says more needs to be done
The father of the Georgia pilot who was killed in the Washington, D.C. plane crash says more needs to be done to prevent future aviation tragedies. Sam Lilley was co-piloting the American Airlines plane when it collided with a Blackhawk helicopter.
ATLANTA - The father of a Georgia pilot who died in a Washington, D.C., plane crash is calling for enhanced training and safety measures to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
"I'm asking them to revamp their training program for everything that could have come into play here in this accident and to hold a safety stand within 60 days and retrain on those issues," he said.
His son, Sam Lilley, was laid to rest in Savannah over the weekend. Lilley's father hopes his death will lead to meaningful change in aviation safety.
RELATED: Sam Lilley: Georgia pilot killed in DC plane crash laid to rest
Sam Lilley was serving as first officer on the American Airlines plane involved in the incident.
Authorities continue to investigate the cause of the crash.
The backstory:
The Jan. 29 collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and the Black Hawk Army helicopter killed everyone aboard both aircraft.
An FAA report after the crash said that the air traffic controller received an alert that the plane and helicopter were converging when they were still more than a mile apart. The controller responded by asking the helicopter if it had the plane in sight and directed the helicopter to pass behind the plane. The helicopter responded that it did have the plane in sight.
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It was the deadliest plane crash in the U.S. since Nov. 12, 2001, when a jet slammed into a New York City neighborhood just after takeoff, killing all 260 people on board and five on the ground. There hadn’t even been a deadly crash of any kind involving a U.S. airliner since February 2009.