Jonathan Campos and Sam Lilley: Pilots eyeing a full, rewarding future before crash
Just before Capt. Jonathan Campos boarded the American Eagle flight he would pilot to Washington D.C., he called his aunt: He was looking forward to a Caribbean cruise with extended family they’d been planning for a year.
Next to him in the cockpit was Sam Lilley, the flight’s 28-year-old first officer, who was also looking to the future. He was engaged to be married in the fall, Lilley’s father, Tim, said in a Facebook post.
The pilots took off from Witchita with two flight attendants and 60 passengers – ice skaters, coaches and families returning from a skating competition and development camp, union workers and friends on a hunting trip and a student returning to college.
Campos planned to arrive in Washington D.C. on Wednesday night, get to Philadelphia and catch a flight back home to Ormond Beach, Florida, his aunt, Beverly Lane, told Paste BN.
“That was the last time I heard from him,” she said.
The lives of both airline pilots were cut short, along with all passengers and the three-person crew of the Army helicopter after the two aircraft collided and crashed into a frigid Potomac River shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday night in the deadliest passenger air disaster since 2001.
Robert Isom, the CEO of American Airlines, said the pilots were experienced. He said the captain had flown for at least six years with PSA, a regional airline owned by the American Airlines Group. The first officer had "almost two years" with the airline, Isom said.
Isom told reporters the passenger jet was on an "otherwise normal approach" when it collided with the Black Hawk helicopter. "We don't know why the military aircraft came into the path of the PSA aircraft," he said.
The cause remains under investigation. Jason Ambrosi, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, said in statement that it's important to allow the investigation to run its course.
Lane, who was in Washington on Friday, said recovery workers had found the bodies of both Lilley and Campos.
“I was so proud when Sam became a pilot,” Tim Lilley said in his social media post. “Now it hurts so bad I can’t even cry myself to sleep.”
Scuba diver, skier and pilot, Campos ‘wanted to soar’
Campos’ late father was a New York City police officer, Lane said, which instilled in his son a sense of service. But it was clear from an early age he wanted to be a pilot.
“He always wanted to soar like a bird,” she said.
Campos made that dream come true, graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2015.
"Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Captain Jonathan Campos (Aeronautical Sciences,’15)," Sarah Barczyk, the university's vice president for communications, wrote in a short statement.
He also received his instructor certification at Epic Flight Academy in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
The flight school in a statement called Campos "a skilled and dedicated pilot with an undeniable passion for flying."
Campos was more than just a pilot, his aunt said. He was adventurous – a certified scuba diver who loved to travel.
“Two weeks ago, he was in Whistler, Canada, where he tried helicopter skiing for the first time,” Lane said on Friday. “He lived life to the fullest, as though each day was the last.”
Empowered by flight, Lilley on cusp of starting family
Lilley initially didn’t follow his father into the pilot profession.
Lilley graduated from Georgia Southern University in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in business administration.
After a time working in marketing, he talked things over with his father and decided to go to flight school, Lilley’s sister, Tiffany Gibson, told the Charlotte Observer.
Tracy Baxter was the training support specialist at the ATP Flight School when Sam Lilley earned his commercial pilot license and instructor ratings.
Students spend six to seven days a week working in the intensive program in Daytona Beach, Florida. When they weren’t flying, she said, they were at home studying. Many drop off and it takes someone dedicated to make it through. Lilley, she said, had that dedication.
Lilley seemed more mature than many of his peers who hadn’t been to college, she recalled. He was quiet, too, but Baxter said working through the program he blossomed.
“Through every success, his shoulders tilted back more, his head was held higher, and just watching him gain confidence through the program was a real joy,” she said.
Amber Mueller had Lilley as a flight instructor when she started classes at the Daytona flight school in October 2020. She remembered he was generous with his time, always willing to answer students’ questions.
Mueller, now a pilot for a charter flight company out of New Orleans, said Lilley was a strong pilot, and helped her understand flying techniques others could not.
“He was so positive and wanted our success so badly that when times got tough, he was one of the first to remind us what was waiting for us at the end of the tunnel,” Mueller said.
Though they didn’t have much free time in the program, Mueller recalled he loved spending time with his friends at pool parties or the beach.
Their group from school, she said, stayed in touch after they left the program, sometimes sending each other “silly aviation videos” or commenting on each other's lives on social media. And she said his legacy will carry on through flying.
“He was such a good instructor,” she said. “The things that he taught me, the things he taught other students, those are things we taught our students and hopefully they’ll teach their students.”
More recently, he was excited that he would soon become a husband and start a family, Gibson told the Observer.
“He was a fun, adventurous son and brother,” Gibson, who lives in Goldsboro, N.C., told the news organization. “I have three kids that he was an uncle to. He was the ‘funcle’. They all loved and adored him. And he loved traveling and he loved flying.”
Lilley’s father, Tim, who told Paste BN he wasn't immediately available to speak about his son, told the Daily Mail that his son was near becoming a captain.
Lilley's death has also been felt by the institutions he was part of. Both Richmond Hill High School and Georgia Southern University issued statements of sympathy and sadness for his family. His church, Coastal Community Christian Church, similarly posted on social media, expressing sadness for the pilot who had been a member of the religious community since childhood.
In Washington on Friday, Lane said investigators looking into “every facet” of the possible cause of the crash. “The FAA actually asked for Jonathan's medical records. They're asking for a lot of information,” she said.
She said she was with Lilley’s family the on Thursday night. Everyone, including Lilley’s fiance, as well as Jonathan’s partner, are devastated, she said.
Lane said her family plans to bury Campos next to his father in Queens, New York.