2 Georgians’ deaths in D.C. air crash leave many heartbroken
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - At least two crew of the aircraft that collided Wednesday night have ties to Georgia, News 12 has learned on the day after the tragedy killed scores of people at Ronald Reagan National Airport outside Washington, D.C.
An American Airlines flight carrying 64 people and an Army helicopter carrying three soldiers on a training flight collided in midair Wednesday night as the plane was trying to land.
All of the people involved are feared dead.
A soldier on the helicopter, Ryan O’Hara, and a pilot on the plane, Samuel Lilley, both have Georgia ties.
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Samuel Lilley
One of the American Airlines pilots of Flight 5342 was 28-year-old Samuel Lilley from Savannah.
Lilley, the first officer of the flight, was engaged and started training in 2019.
Lilley’s father, Timothy Lilley, said 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,” Timothy Lilley said in a Facebook post Thursday. “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, 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 ionate,” 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.”
Logan Stewart, a grade school friend of the pilot, said that the whole time he knew him, Lilley always wanted to fly.
He also said that Lilley had a personality that made everyone around him smile.
“On behalf of our whole graduating class, I just want to say that we love him. We’re so proud of him. We’re going to miss him so much, and the town of Richmond Hill, this whole area and just the whole world at large is a better place for having him in it.”
Friends said Sam Lilley graduated from Georgia Southern University.
GSU also shared a statement on Lilley’s death:
“The Georgia Southern community is deeply saddened by the loss of one of our outstanding alumni, Sam Lilley (’18), who embodied the Eagle spirit and soared beyond in his career. We will continue to keep Sam’s family and friends in our thoughts as they grieve this tragedy.”
Ryan O’Hara
Ryan O’Hara, the crew chief on the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter, was part of the 2014 class of Parkview Marine Corps JROTC at Parkview High School in Lilburn.
He was one of three soldiers aboard the helicopter.
“Ryan was just the most committed, disciplined person I working with,” said Josh Muehlendorf, a senior instructor pilot in the U.S. Army. “He had such great integrity.”
The two flew together numerous times on the same route in D.C. several years prior to the fatal crash and O’Hara took rules and procedures seriously, according to Mehlendorf.
“Ryan was one of those crew chiefs who always had our back,” he said. “It’s really hard to stomach a guy as professional and excellent as he was.”
“Our deepest condolences go out to Gary O’Hara and his entire family,” Parkview MCJROTC said in a Facebook post. “Ryan is fondly ed as a guy who would fix things around the ROTC gym, as well as a vital member of the rifle team.”
According to Jonathan Koziol, chief of staff for Army aviation, the crew flying the Army Blackhawk helicopter was “very experienced” and were not new to the unit or the congested flying that occurs daily around Washington, D.C.
“Both pilots had flown this specific route before, at night. This wasn’t something new to either one of them,” Koziol said.
“Even the crew chief in the back has been in the unit for a very long time, very familiar with the area, very familiar with the routing structure.”
The crew included an instructor pilot and pilot in command who were experienced to the point where either crew member “could manage that helicopter by themselves.”
The instructor pilot, who was serving as pilot-in-command, had about 1,000 flight hours, Koziol said.
The instructor pilot was evaluating the second pilot — who was also qualified as a pilot in command — for that night training flight and the pilot who was being evaluated had about 500 flight hours, Koziol said.
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